O Lempi!

Lempikuoro’s 5th Anniversary Concert

Sat November 23, 2024 at 3 pm
Meilahti Church

Julia Lainema, conductor

A word from Lauri Marjamäki, co-founder
Several in Lempi have a long background in choir singing. Many of us have sung, in particular, in the Hämäläis-Osakunta…

A word from Lauri Marjamäki, co-founder
Several in Lempi have a long background in choir singing. Many of us have sung, in particular, in the Hämäläis-Osakunta Laulajat (HOL, “Finland’s oldest academic mixed choir”) and have gained a healthy dose of musical education and choral singing skills from there. Shared memories, for example at Europa Cantat 2015 in Pécs, Hungary, welded the old hol-chorists so closely together that, as our student years drew to a close and we left HOL, we could not keep our distance. We immediately founded a new choir, which took its first steps in the autumn of 2019. At first, our small group of twenty people was led by Milka Pajukallio and (yours truly) Lauri Marjamäki.

When we were looking for a direction for our new choir, we had several options: a singing ensemble of friends who had known each other for a long time, a small choir that would rehearse and perform periodically, or a growing chamber choir that would regularly rehearse, hire an artistic director and also welcome new singers. Five years on, it is clear that we made the right decision. The past four years or so under Julia Lainema’s direction have made Lempikuoro a full-blooded chamber choir, not only in size but also in sound. The choir’s good prospects for the future were already apparent in the intense activity of the early days, despite the pandemic: at that time, we practised persistently outdoors or, with the help of the infamous Jamulus app, from home. We were lucky, too, as we were able to record our first (remote) concert in November 2020, just before the worst of the pandemic wave.

However, after several amazing concerts, a successful Tampere Sävel choral review and many years active, it is not time to rest on our laurels, but to look to the future. May the next five years be at least as good as the past for Lempikuoro! We hope that this anniversary concert will convey all the joy and happiness that choral singing has brought us over the years.

Lauri Marjamäki
Co-founder and co-director

A word from Julia Lainema, artistic director
I have been involved with the 5‑year-old Lempikuoro almost since the beginning. Starting to work…

A word from Julia Lainema, artistic director
I have been involved with the 5‑year-old Lempikuoro almost since the beginning. Starting to work with a new choir is always exciting and sometimes difficult, but recruiting in the middle of a pandemic situation made the beginning even more challenging than usual. Despite the circumstances, the choir immediately offered a warm and welcoming sense of community that is so characteristic of Lempi.

For me, Lempi’s activity strongly reflects an effort to ensure that the choir truly reflects its singers: their wishes and visions. So, as we considered the repertoire for the anniversary concert, it was clear that we wanted the repertoire choices to showcase the choir and the skills of the choristers in as diverse a way as possible – to bring out the different voices.

In the first half of the concert, the sun sets and the twilight of night wraps around us. Morning overcomes the night in the second half of the concert, but leads us back to the setting of the sun at the end. The works are also linked by a maritime setting – both in terms of the nationality of the composers and the texts of the works.

Each piece features the singers’ own voice or vision in a particular way. The first two pieces, Aurinko laskee (“Sun is setting”) and Myrsky (“Storm”), were composed for this concert by Antti Suomalainen and Lassi Vihko, who sing in the choir. After the premieres, Anders Hillborg’s En midsommarnattsdröm (“A Midsummer Night’s Dream”) will combine a flock of birds taking flight to traditional song. The power of the voice and the intensity of the song are at the heart of Vytautas Miškinis’ Dum medium silentium and Evelin Seppar’s Seesama meri.

When the violin, which closes the first half of the concert, presents a new side of the Lempikuoro. Our soprano Anu Luukela plays the cello and a quartet of the choir performs solo parts in a captivatingly beautiful work based on the Indian Charukeshi raga by Reena Esmail.

nine dawn watercolours by Jaakko Mäntyjärvi opens the second half. Here the audience gets to hear each singer individually. Nine vocal ensembles, or ‘watercolours’, carry the story from dusk to dawn as the soundscape transports the listener to the atmosphere of the seaside.

In the final piece, we are joined on stage by trumpet artist Devina Boughton, who has also sung in Lempikuoro. The voices of choir and trumpet intertwine in a magical way in Josefine Lindstrand ‘s four-part work Sånger från berget.

Based on the seventh movement of Sibelius’s Promotional Cantata: “O Lempi, your power is infinite!” May our unique voices continue to resound in the choir in the future.

Julia Lainema
Artistic director of Lempikuoro

PROGRAMME

AURINKO LASKEE
(The Sun Sets, 2024)
Antti Suomalainen
premiere

MYRSKY
(The Storm, 2024)
Lassi Vihko
premiere

EN MIDSOMMARNATTSDRÖM
(A Midsummer Night’s Dream, 2001)
Anders Hillborg

DUM MEDIUM SILENTIUM (2011)
Vytautas Miškinis

SEESAMA MERI
(The Same Sea, 2019)
Evelin Seppar

solos: Piia Penttilä, Saara Yli-Savola, Annu-Maria Färlin, Stefano De Luca

WHEN THE VIOLIN (2018)
Reena Esmail

cello: Anu Luukela
solos: Inka Laisi, Nina Steinby, Ville Hannikainen, Leo Niemi

Intermission
Tea and chocolate in the lobby!

NINE DAWN WATERCOLOURS (2010)
Jaakko Mäntyjärvi

SÅNGER FRÅN BERGET
(Songs from the Mountain, 2018)
Josefine Lindstrand

I. Tidig gryning – Early Damn
II. Irrande moln – Wandering Clouds
III. Stormen – The Storm
IV. Sången på berget – The Song from the Mountain

solo: Salla Laisi
trumpet: Devina Boughton

Scroll down for lyrics

Lempikuoro

Lempikuoro is a Helsinki-based mixed choir founded by experienced singers in autumn 2019, with Julia Lainema as their artistic director. At the heart of the ambitious choir is the joy of making music, a curious exploration of new ways of performing and a warm sense of community. Lempikuoro wants to promote equality in the choral world. The choir strives to create a culture and atmosphere both within its own community and at choir events that is comfortable and safe to be in. The choir’s activities are based on gentler space principles. The choir’s repertoire ranges from the Renaissance to the present day, and it has collaborated with a wide range of choirs, artists and composers in an open-minded way.

The choir’s repertoire ranges from the Renaissance to contemporary music, and the choir has collaborated open-mindedly with various choirs, artists and composers. In June 2023, Lempikuoro was awarded two gold stamps at the esteemed Tampereen Sävel festival. In September of the same year, the choir gave the Finnish premiere of Pulitzer and Grammy Award winner Caroline Shaw’s work “To the Hands” at the House of Lords with the string ensemble Nome. In 2022, Lempikuoro performed in the famous opera Sun & Sea, which won the Golden Lion at the Venice Biennale and was organised as part of Kiasma’s ARS22 exhibition and the Helsinki Festival.

JULIA LAINEMA

Julia Lainema, the artistic director of Lempikuoro, is one of the most interesting choir directors of her generation. Julia has been described as a charismatic and inspiring leader with a visionary approach to concert planning. She holds a Master’s degree in Choral Conducting from the Sibelius Academy in 2022 and a Master’s degree in Music Education in 2016. In addition to the Lempikuoro, Julia is the artistic director of the Helsinki-based Ahjo Ensemble and Kaari Ensemble and the Tampere-based Chamber Choir Näsi.

It is important to Julia to promote equality in choral music. She has researched forgotten female composers and her statements on gendered practices in choral music have been noted in the media. Julia writes the blog “Women composing choral music”. In addition to her work as a choir director, she arranges and composes choral music.

Julia’s other projects and thoughts on choral conducting can be found on her website: julialainema.com

LYRICS

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All translations by Elissa Shaw & AI unless otherwise noted

Antti Suomalainen: Aurinko laskee
(poem by Katri Vala)

Huohottavana, säteilevänä,
punaisena ja kylmänä
katsot sinä, aurinko, maata,
jonka yli valkohehkuisena kiisit
korkealle kohoten.
Suuren meren taakse sinä lasket,
jonka rannalla minä seison
pienenä ja yksinäisenä.
Oi sinä kuuma ja ihana,
oi sinä punainen ja kylmä,
minun sydämeni paleltuu murheesta,
kun sinä minut noin jätät!
Katso, kuinka minä värisen,
katso, kuinka käteni sinua kurkoittavat,
kun sinä viet pois säteesi ruumiiltani,
kun sinä lakkaat sieluuni paistamasta!
Oi sinä jumalallinen!
Tartu näihin kalpeisiin käsiin,
vedä minut viininpunaisen meren yli
polttavaan sydämeesi,
jotta seuraisin sinua sinne, minne menet –
suuren meren taakse!

Exhaling, radiant,
red and cold
you, sun, look at the earth,
over which you glide, white-hot
towering high.
Beyond the great sea you descend,
On whose shore I stand
small and lonely.
O you hot and lovely one,
O you red and cold,
my heart is cold with sorrow,
when you leave me like this!
See how I tremble,
See how my hands reach out to you,
When thou takest thy rays from my body,
when thou wilt cease to bake my soul!
O you divine!
Take hold of these pale hands,
pull me across the wine-red sea
Into thy burning heart,
that I may follow thee wherever you may go
beyond the great sea!

Lassi Vihko: Myrsky
(poem by Eino Leino)

Ihmissieluss’ oli myrsky.
Tunteet kuohui,
vaahtos vaiston lakkalaineet,
tuhat mielikuvaa tunki, toinen
toista ajoi, alkuvietit villit
myrskysivät myötä juuriansa.
Vihdoin koitti aatteen armas päivä.

Ihmissieluss’ oli myrsky.
Aatteet toistaan ajoi,
voimakkaampi voitti,
kävi sotaa käsitteiden parvet,
kiisti velvoitukset keskenänsä,
taistelivat tieto ynnä tahto.
Vihdoin teko mielen rauhan antoi.

Vaan kun myrsky raivoo maailmassa, silloin käyvät työt ja teot sotaa,
mieli nousee vasten mieltä,
miesi vasten miestä,
kansa vasten kansaa,
taivas salamoi,
maan pimeys peittää.
Mistä silloin meille päivän pilke?

Siitä silloin päivän pilke,
koska teot sotaa käyvät,
että aate ohjaa miestä,
että kalskuu kirkkaat kalvat;
siitä silloin päivän pilke,
koska kalskuu kirkkaat kalvat,
että alla aattehien puhdas, tuores tunto asuu.

Mutta mistä päivän pilke,
koska kansat sotaa käyvät?

Siitä silloin päivän pilke,
koska kansat sotaa käyvät,
että voittaa voimakkaampi,
ett’ on oikeus voimakkaalla, että on se voimakkaampi,
joll’ on aatteet voimakkaammat,
jonka mieliss’ aatteen miesten
tuorehemmat tunteet asuu.

There was a storm in the human soul. Feelings roared, foams of instinct made waves,
a thousand images, one by one
drove the other, the first wild urges were uprooted.
At last came the sweet day of the cause.

There was a storm in the human soul. Causes drove one another, the stronger won,
the war was fought by swarms of concepts, disputing obligations among themselves, fought knowledge and will.
At last the deed gave peace to the mind.

But when the storm rages in the world, then works and deeds are at war,
the mind against the mind,
man against man,
nation against nation,
the sky is lightning,
the earth covered in darkness.
Where then shall we find the glimmer of the day?

There’s the glimmer of the day,
since deeds are at war,
that the cause guides the man, that the bright sprites of a mind; thus the glimmer of the day, since the bright sprites of a mind, that underneath the cause, the pure and fresh sense dwells.

But wherefore the glimmer of the day, when nations wage war?

There’s the glimmer of the day,
because nations wage war,
that the stronger may win,
that the stronger may have the right to be the stronger,
who has the stronger ideas,
who has grip of thoughts,
the fresher feelings dwell.

Vytautas Miškinis: Dum medium silentium
(Wisdom 18:14.15, Biblical)

Dum medium silentium tenerent omnia,
et nox in suo cursu medium iter haberet,
omnipotens sermo tuus, Domine
de coelis a regalibus sedibus venit.

As all things were contained within silence,
and the course of the night had reached its middle,
your word, O Lord,
descended from heaven, from its royal throne.

Evelin Seppar: Seesama meri
(poem by Jaan Kaplinski)

Seesama meri meis kõigis punane pime soe
Kõigi kaarte tuulte tuksumine südamepurjedes
vahujoom läbi avaruse mõlalt pudenev küsimus
Veeremas lainepinnale tagasi hirm pimeduse taga
Kas seesama meri ootamas merd

The same sea in all of us red dark warm
Winds from every direction pulsing in the heart’s sails foaming through white space a question dripping from a paddle
Rolling back to the surface of the wave
Fear behind the darkness
Is it the same sea waiting for the sea

Anders Hillborg: En midsommarnattsdröm
(lyrics from “Visa i Midsommartid” by Håkan Norlén and Rune Lindström)

Du lindar av olvon en midsommarkrans,
och hänger den om ditt hår.
Du skrattar åt mångubbens benvita glans,
som högt över tallen står.

I natt skall du dansa vid Svartrama tjärn,
i långdans i språngdans på glödande järn.
I natt är du bjuden av dimman till dans,
där Ull-Stina och Kull-Lisa går.

You wrap a midsummer wreath of olivine,
and hang it about your head.
You laugh at the bone-white splendour of the moon man, who stands high above the pine.

Tonight you’ll dance by the pond of Svartrama,
in long dance, in leap dance on glowing iron.
Tonight you are invited by the fog to dance,
where Ull-Stina and Kull-Lisa walk.

Reena Esmail: When the violin
(poem by Hafiz, English translation by Daniel Ladinsky)

When the violin can forgive the past
it starts singing

When the violin can stop worrying about the future
you will become such a drunk laughing nuisance
that God will then lean down
and start combing you into Her hair

When the violin can forgive every wound caused by others
the heart starts singing

Jaakko Mäntyjärvi: nine dawn watercolours
(poem by Peter McGarr)

1
late moon
clouding hills
in a distance of indigo

2
restless sea
unknown faces
from a sepia photograph

3
sunrise of songs
the birds imagined

4
new islands rise
dawn shadows fade

5
a point of land
catching clouds
in echoes

6
just can’t sleep
hearing that old
familiar love song

7
morning waves
lighting your sleeping face

8
all the dreams remain
to haunt the day

9
now the fragrant night vanishes

Josefine Lindstrand: Sånger från berget
(poems by Edith Södergran)

1. Tidig gryning
Några sista stjärnor lysa matt.
Jag ser dem ur mitt fönster. Himlen är blek,
man anar knappast dagen som börjar i fjärran.
Det vilar en tystnad utbredd över sjön,
det ligger en viskning på lur mellan träden,
min gamla trädgård lyssnar halvförstrött
till nattens andetag, som susa över vägen.

1. Early Dawn
A few last stars shine dimly.
I see them from my window. The sky is pale,
one hardly recognises the day that begins in the distance.
There is a silence spread over the lake,
a whisper lurks among the trees,
my old garden listens half-weary
To the night’s breath, whispering over the road.

2. Irrande moln
Irrande moln har fastnat vid bergets brant,
ändlösa timmar stå de i tystnad och vänta:
vill dem en jagande vind över slätten strö,
skola de stiga med solen högt över topparnas snö.

Irrande moln ha ställt sig i solens väg,
vardagens sorgefanor hänga så tunga,
nere i dalen går livet med släpande steg,
en flygels toner ur öppnade fönster sjunga.

Lapp på lapp är dalens brokiga matta,
fast som socker är höjdernas eviga snö…
Vintern stiger sakta ned i dalen.
Jättarna le.

2. Wandering Clouds
Wandering clouds have stuck to the mountainside,
endless hours they stand in silence and wait:
If a chasing wind will blow them over the plain,
they shall rise with the sun high above the snow of the peaks.

Wandering clouds have stood in the sun’s path,
The banners of daily sorrow hang so heavy,
Down in the valley, life goes with dragging steps,
The notes of a bird sing from open windows.

Patch upon patch is the valley’s varied carpet,
firm as sugar is the eternal snow of the heights…
Winter descends slowly into the valley.
The giants smile.

3. Stormen
Nu höljer sig jorden åter i svart. Det är stormen som stiger ur nattliga klyftor och dansar
allena sin spöklika dans över jorden.
Nu kämpa människor åter — fantom mot fantom.

Vad vilja de, vad veta de? De äro drivna
som boskap ur mörka vrår,
de slita sig ej lös från händelsernas koppelked:
de stora idéerna driva sitt byte framför sig.
Idéerna sträcka förgäves besvärjande armar i stormen, han, den dansande, vet att han ensam är herre på jorden.

Världen rår ej om sig själv. Det ena skall
störta som ett brinnande hus, som ett murket träd,
det andra står kvar förskonat av okända händer.

Och solen ser på allt detta, och stjärnorna lysa i iskalla nätter och människan smyger sig ensam sin väg mot den gränslösa lyckan.

3. The Storm
The earth is once again shrouded in black. It is the storm rising from the nightly chasms and dancing
its ghostly dance over the earth. Now people are fighting again — phantom against phantom.

What do they want, what do they know? They are driven like cattle from dark corners,
they cannot break free from the chain of events:
The great ideas drive their prey before them.
Ideas stretch out their arms in vain in the storm,
he, the dancer, knows that he alone is master of the earth.

The world cannot take care of itself. The one shall
shall fall like a burning house, like a rotten tree,
The other shall be spared by hands unknown.

And the sun looks on all this, and the stars shine in icy nights and man alone creeps his way to boundless happiness.

4. Sången på berget
Solen gick ned över havets skum och stranden sov
Och uppe på bergen stod någon och sjöng…
När orden föllo i vattnet voro de döda…

Och sången försvann bakom tallarna och skymningen förde den med sig.
När allt var tyst, tänkte jag blott
Att där låg hjärteblod på den kvällskumma klippan

Jag anade dunkelt att sången var
Om något som aldrig återvänder.

4. The Song from the Mountain
The sun set over the foam of the sea and the shore slept
And up on the mountains someone was singing…
When the words fell into the water they were dead…

And the song disappeared behind the pines and the twilight took it away.
When all was silent, I thought only
That there was heart-blood on the dusky rock

I dimly guessed that the song was
Of something that never will return.