Stories by

Kaija Saariaho has done it again: her opera Innocence, premiered in Aix-en-Provence, proved to be a masterpiece and was enthusiastically received by the audience and critics alike. Its distressing subject, a school shooting, was merely the starting point for a multi-faceted exploration of humanity and trauma. Text, music and drama came together in a rich and emotional blend. Is this the best opera that Saariaho has ever written?

During the last year, music consumption has been confined inside the four walls of individual homes, but at the same time it has expanded with the help of streamed concerts which give access to performances from around the world.

"The resilience of our industry has been weighed in the balance and found to be sound. We will pull through this, but it will require us to accept that the change is permanent and to respond to that change," writes Annamaija Saarela in her FMQ column.

As the pandemic fades in Finland and live gigs resume, what have we learned from the abrupt leap into the virtual space? And where do we go from here? Is live streaming here to stay – or just the first step?

Quarries and ravines, repurposed industrial facilities and world-class auditoriums: music occupies an incredibly diverse range of spaces in Finland. How are these needs shifting with technological and social changes?

​When the pandemic forced concerts to remove themselves from halls and clubs to a virtual space, everyone involved found themselves in a completely new situation: listeners, performers, venues and concert producers. At the time of writing, concerts are slowly returning to physical venues around the world, but many things have changed and many more things are in a state of flux. Many things that we were forced to learn under these exceptional circumstances will continue to affect the way we do things even after the pandemic is over.

Finnish coloratura soprano Anu Komsi has been commissioning, premiering and recording music by Saariaho since the 1980s. Now she and her trusted collaborative pianist Pia Värri have compiled an intense selection of Saariaho.

"Could emphatic escapism in fact be the best reflection of the current time, where all of us wish that we were living in the past? Perhaps a symbolic farewell to that which is past is the best way to proceed to something new? Accordingly, the concerts at the Time of Music festival in summer 2021 will be memorial plaques of the future," writes artistic director, composer Johan Tallgren in his column.

Sakari Oramo is one of Finland’s international star conductors and is known for his extended engagements with orchestras and for his sense of responsibility. During the Year of the Coronavirus, his duties with his orchestras in London and Stockholm were suspended almost completely, but his new job as Professor of Orchestral Training and Orchestra Conducting with the world-famous conducting class of the Sibelius Academy has kept him busy. Here, he is responsible not only for Finland’s reputation in orchestra conducting but also for our standard of orchestral playing, which has recently become a cause for concern.