Festival finale opts for a concert of reflection

Canberra International Music Festival / Finlandia, ​​festival finale. At Snow Concert Hall, May 4. Reviewed by MICHAEL WILSON.

Whereas the festival’s opening concert introduced festival themes of liberté and the celebration of music from Finland and Eastern Europe, the finale – titled for Jean Sibelius’ Finlandia – was a reflection. 

Instead of a spectacular, artistic director Eugene Ughetti programmed a collection of mostly short works showcasing very contemporary Finnish and Australian music. 

Involving many of the musicians who had performed over the five-day program, a final tribute to First Nations music felt right. 

Opening with three works by Kaija Saariaho (voted the world’s greatest living composer by her peers in BBC Music Magazine in 2019), the audience was treated to improvisations by solo strings, percussion and voice, and recorded soundscape backdrop. 

Oriana Chorale and Kompactus Youth Choir then performed her Tag des Jars, with discordant harmonies and spoken words and a whispered entreaty to finish. The third movement from Saariaho’s Cloud Trio for strings featured an intriguing technique which prevented the strings vibrating, creating an incredibly soft but gritty sound effect. 

Following the wonderful Cantabile by Helvi Leiviskä – a song-like duet performed by Paavali Jumppanen on piano and Tipi Valve on his magnificently warm and resonant cello – a celebration of Finland’s most famous son, Sibelius. 

The scherzo and moderato from his Piano Quintet in G, flawlessly performed, flowed on to a celebration of Sibelius’ hymn Finlandia. 

It built from solo cello melody up to massed choir, and then a tremendously effective modern take by Erkki Veltheim (also on violin) comprising sound installation (bird calls, raindrops, wind) and instrumental improvisation where the Finlandia theme peeped through subtly but brilliantly.

The second half opened with yet another marvellous composition for choir by festival artist-in-residence Olivia Davies: women’s voices singing long portamentos (slides) in both directions over the humming of the men, then spoken words from Thuy On’s title poem Murmuration. 

After the festival opening concert’s heartbreakingly brief introduction to Mark Atkins on the yidaki (Arnhem Land didgeridoo), we got a satisfying serve here. 

First with a short improvisation, and then as the anchor for another Davies piece, Enfold, Atkins amazed with the breadth of sound and effects he pulled from his instrument, joined in series by two bagpipes and a single chanter, finishing simply with droned notes in arpeggio.

Another highlight was Outi Tarkiainen’s mesmeric Without a Trace for solo piano, a tribute to Sámi (First Nations of Finland, Norway and Sweden) reindeer herders. 

Surely the hero of the festival, Jumppanen used every part of the piano (played, strings plucked, strings held using the keys as percussion, beating inside the soundbox) and his voice, uttering words from a Sámi poem.

The finale was a festival commission by Warrimay composer Nicole Smede, comprising six choirs, singing in language, with the three indigenous choirs also performing percussion on clapsticks, eucalyptus boughs, stamping and clapped rhythms, underpinned by the yidaki.

Melody lines sung from the stage were then repeated by choirs in the balconies of the Snow Concert Hall, with rising and descending triplet patterns and syncopations. 

A celebratory cheer was a fitting end to a most engaging, educative and high-quality festival.

https://citynews.com.au/2025/festival-finale-opts-for-a-concert-of-reflection/