Helsingin kamarikuoro
Nils Schweckendiek

Melartin: Sekaäänisiä lauluja, Op. 61b
Collan: Morgenlied (Morning Song) (reconstructed by N. Schweckendiek)
Henrik Borenius: Laulajaparille (To the Singing Couple) (arr. for mixed choir)
Karl Johan Moring: Den Väntande (He Who Waits)
Karl Johan Moring: Hämnden (Revenge)
Crusell: Hell dig, du höga Nord! (Hail, Lofty Northland!) (version for male choir)
Piae Cantiones: No. 73, In vernali tempore - Tullos kevät armahin
Pacius: Vårmorgonen (Spring Morning)
Rafael Laethén: Iltalaulu (Evening Song)
Fredrik August Ehrström: Svanen (The Swan) (reconstructed by N. Schweckendiek)
Kajanus: Serenad (Serenade) (version for mixed choir)
trad.: Iloa ja surua (Joy and Sorrow) (arr. E. Sivori for mixed choir)
Ludvig Kiljander: Metsässä (In the Forest)
Hannikainen, P J: Punkaharjun laulutyttö (The Singing Girl from Punkaharju)
Erik August Hagfors: Kevätyhtiön Polska (Spring Polska)
trad.: Och jungfrun hon går i dansen (And the Maiden Goes in a Ring) (arr. M. Wegelius for mixed choir)
Ludvig Kiljander: Hiljaa! (Quiet!)
Primus Leppänen: Näin unta kesästä kerran (Once in a Dream I Saw Summer)
Emil Genetz: Ins stille land (Into the Silent Land)
Järnefelt: Orpo ja lintu (The Orphan and the Bird)
Järnefelt: Armahan kulku (The Path of the Beloved)
Melartin: Sekaäänisiä lauluja, Op. 61b
Merikanto, O: Itätuulessa (In the East Wind)
Melartin: Sekaäänisiä lauluja, Op. 61b
trad.: Piiritanssilaulu (Round Dance Song) (arr. R. Faltin for mixed choir)
Linsén: Skördefolkets visa (Song of the Harvesters)

From a 21st-century perspective, Sibelius may appear to stand more or less alone in the history of Finnish music. It is easy to forget that he could not have fulfilled his artistic potential if his environment had not been conducive to musical creativity. But much of the music that was part of that environment has been almost completely forgotten, often because its aesthetic didn’t accord with the prevailing nationalist trends of the late 19th century.

In this programme of choral works, Nils Schweckendiek and his Helsinki Chamber Choir guide us through some 80 years of Finnish music for choir, from the period when the country formed part of the Russian Empire, as the Grand Duchy of Finland. It was during this time that a Finnish nationalist movement began to take form, in opposition towards the political and cultural dominance of Russia and Sweden respectively. This development can be traced in the way the idea of Spring – a staple in the songs of the Nordic countries – changes from a sense of joy at the end to the hardships of winter to a metaphor for liberation from political oppression. Another result was the Fennicizationtowards the end of the 19th century, during which many popular Swedish and German-language songs were translated into Finnish and the originals in effect suppressed – a case in point being the earliest piece on the disc, F. A. Ehrström’s Svanen (The Swan, 1833), which has had its original Swedish text restored for this recording.

"These are also mostly miniatures, only one of them over the three minute mark and most under two, as sweet-sour and unexpected as a cloudberry eaten in the field. Obscure the provenances (some of them) may be, but this is a recording that bursts with charm, and perfectly pitched at under an hour." - Choir & Organ, March 2019.