Conducted by Catherine Larsen-Maguire, this Friday's programme includes works by Rautavaara, Nielsen and Sibelius

 

Sinfónica de Tenerife (Tenerife Symphony Orchestra) is a project of the Island Council’s Department of Culture which is directed by Enrique Arriaga. This Friday the 1st of April, the Orchestra is offering, at 7:30 p.m. a programme with three composers who were contemporaries and leading exponents of classical music in their respective countries: Dane Carl Nielsen (Sortelung, 1865 - Copenhagen, 1931) and Finn Jean Sibelius (Hämeenlinna, 1865 - Ainola, 1957) and the fellow Finn Einojuhani Rautavaara (Helsinki, 1928 - Helsinki, 2016), considered the successor to Sibelius and a key author in contemporary music.

Indeed, the programme is getting underway with the last author and his unique concert from 1972, Cantus articus op.61, subtitled “Concerto for Birds and Orchestra”, a work composed as an ode to the freedom that nature offers us, and built around three movements, where the instruments overlap and have a dialogue with birdsong from Finnish birds recorded by the author in the wetlands of Liminka, close to the Arctic Circle. 

Then, the concert for flute and orchestra that the Danish composer, violinist and pianist Carl Nielsen premièred in 1926. This work was composed of only two movements; it is probably the author’s work that is performed most internationally. The concert, very like chamber music and written in a style that is midway between Neoclassicism and Modernism, was the first of the ones promised by Nielsen to each of the members of the Copenhagen Wind Quintet after he was fascinated listening to them rehearsing music by Mozart. He only completed two of these concerts due to his poor health. Adam Walker is considered the ambassador of a new generation of wind soloists and a debutant with the Tenerife Symphony Orchestra; he will be the soloist flautist for this occasion.

In the second part, we will return to Finland with Jean Sibelius, the most renowned Finnish composer inside and outside his country, and his Symphony No. 3 in C major, Op. 52 (1907). His work was considered a turning point within the eight that he completed, midway between the grandeur and patriotic romanticism of the first two and the complex austerity of the last ones.

Catherine Larsen-Maguire (Manchester, 1971) is returning to the island for the third time in the last two seasons. After ten years as a principal bassoonist at the Komische Oper Berlin, Catherine Larsen-Maguire decided to focus exclusively on conducting in 2012. Thanks to her orchestra experience, she acquired extensive knowledge of the orchestra repertoire and psychology, also an exceptional musical ear; since then she has been a highly renowned orchestra conductor in orchestras in both Europe and South America.

This season she is making her début with the London Philharmonic and the BBC National Orchestra of Wales in the United Kingdom, the Orchestre de Chambre de Genève and the Orchestre de Chambre Fribourgeois in Switzerland and the Göttinger Symphonieorchester in Germany. Alongside the standard orchestral canon, Catherine Larsen-Maguire also has a special interest in contemporary music. Her collaborations include Klangforum Wien, Ensemble Musikfabrik, Ensemble Resonanz, Ensemble Ascolta and the Ensemble United Berlin. 

Adam Walker studied at Chetham's School of Music with Gitte Sorensen and at the Royal Academy of Music with Michael Cox.  He was named principal flute of the London Symphony Orchestra aged just 21, a position he held up until 2020. His multiple prizes notably include the Outstanding Young Artist Award of MIDEM Classique and a Borletti-Buitoni Trust Fellowship.

The young Walker regular gives concerts with the main British orchestras, such as the BBC Philharmonic, the BBC Scottish Symphony, London Symphony, Hallé, Ulster, Scottish Chamber and the BBC National Orchestra of Wales.  Outside of the United Kingdom, he has performed with the Baltimore Symphony, Seattle Symphony, the Mexico National Symphony Orchestra, the Seoul Philharmonic Orchestra, the Auckland Philharmonia, the Malaysia Philharmonic, the Malmö Symphony Orchestra, Tampere Philharmonic Orchestra, Vienna Chamber, Solistes Européens, Luxembourg Philharmonic Orchestra and at the Grant Park Festival.

Tickets can be purchased until fifteen minutes before the show on the website www.sinfonicadetenerife.es, at the auditorium's box office and by dialling the phone number 902 317 327 from Monday to Friday from 10:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. Saturdays from 10:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. The audience is requested to arrive at the venue well in advance to enter the Auditorium in staggered "waves". By purchasing tickets, you accept the measures implemented by the cultural centre to combat COVID-19. All of the measures, as well as the contingency plan certified by AENOR, can be consulted on the Auditorium’s website.