Hanko soi ry, which organizes live classical music concerts in Hanko—Finland’s southernmost city—amidst a unique seaside atmosphere, will hold its spring concert, “Vapauteen,” in the banquet hall of Hanko City Hall on Easter Monday at 2:00 p.m.
Beethoven’s expansive and luminous Violin Concerto enchants with its soulful pastoral melodies and contemplative melancholy, but also with its powerful sense of determination. The work concludes with an uplifting, universal sense of liberation. Beethoven has been regarded as one of the loneliest figures in music history, and the composer, who enjoyed walks in nature, once said that he loved “trees more than people.” It is astonishing how much light and humanity the reclusive Beethoven managed to infuse into his only violin concerto.
Before the journey with Beethoven, however, the concert will open with Latvian Peteris Vasks' duo for violin and cello, ”Castillo interior”. The stripped-down and honest musical language connects to the parables of the 16th-century nun Teresa of Ávila, who described the human soul as a castle with several different “dwellings”. In the ”inner castle” dwellings of composer Vasks, one hears vulnerability, weariness, pain, and questions, but ultimately also deep peace. From this, it is natural to transition to the lightness of spring in Beethoven's company.
Peteris Vasks: Castillo interior
Ludvig van Beethoven: Violin Concerto in D major
(arr. C. Hinde for violin and string quintet)
Knuut Nissinen, violin soloist
Martin Granström and Lorenzo Pap, violin
Arttu Nummela, viola
Matti Skyttä, cello
Vilhelm Karlsson, double bass
duration approx. 55 min
Admission at the door 20/15 €
For Hanko soi members 15/13 €
(MobilePay, card, cash)