- by CMSCVA Artistic Director James Wilson
For the next fourteen days, I’m staying in the small town of Kuhmo, Finland, population 9,200. It’s located halfway up the country, a seven-hour drive from Helsinki, seventy-five miles from the Russian border. At this time of year, there are twenty-two hours of daylight in the day. There are bears lurking somewhere here, wild lupines and phlox are abundant, and the strawberries are fabulous. But what makes this cozy place so extraordinary, and a worthy subject for this chamber music blog, is the fact that it is also the home of one of the world’s largest chamber music festivals!
The numbers are impressive - over the next two weeks, there will be eighty concerts, performed by more than a hundred and sixty musicians. I am particularly privileged to one of seventeen cellists performing in this festival. But even as a musician/insider at Kuhmo, I still feel as if this festival sprung up magically from nothing. I was picked up at the airport, dropped off at my accommodations, and then hit the ground running - all the time supported by an amazing staff and organizational system that feels like a clockwork security blanket.
I’d like to uncover the mysteries of Kuhmo in a set of two blogs. This first one will try to explain what the place feels like. The second will uncover some of the intricate workings behind the scenes that allow this “really big show” to go on.
- We’ll begin our Kuhmo experience right in the heart of things…by enjoying a pancake!
Step up to the stand and order a sweet pancake with berries and dusted with sugar. As you eat it, look straight ahead at gorgeous Lake Lammasjärvi sparkling in the sun and surrounded by pine trees and a tent selling fish dinners. As a native Michigander, I love this view - it reminds me of where I grew up. Look to you left and you can just make out the ochre spire of the 18th century wooden Kuhmo church, one the concert venues here. Immediate to your left is the Kontio school auditorium, a 500 seat gym-cum-concert venue that has basketball nets, climbing ropes and wonderful acoustics. Turn around and you see the beautiful Kuhmo Performing Arts Center, a state-of-the-art hall that houses many of the night-time concerts. The fourth concert venue is a rustic wooden restaurant named Salakamari (“Secret Place”), a short walk away and home to late night offerings of poetry and music.
- The next sensory experience…the scent of mosquito repellent.
Speaking of late night, night is really late here. Twilight stretches to 1am, which is unsettling to someone like me coming from the USA. If you do the math, eighty concerts in fourteen days is an amazing amount of music in a short space of time, but the days are incredibly long here. So, typically there are five or more concerts a day, starting at 11am and often ending at midnight. Kuhmo is a giant musical smorgasbord. You can pick and choose what you would like to hear during any given day, or (as most people prefer) go for the entire five-course concert experience. Dazed and elated, crowds spill out of the last concert of the day and often chase the day’s experience with a late night drink at Salakamari. The mosquitoes love this time of day, and fly in clouds around any warm-blooded creature standing still. If you come here, get used to it - the piquant odor of mosquito spray becomes as useful and welcoming as the nightcap.
- The sounds of silence, clapping and the occasional American accent.
People from all over the world come to Kuhmo to hear these concerts. Occasionally when I am wading through the throngs at intermission I hear an American accent. It’s a surprisingly out-of-place thing to hear in Kuhmo, and so I usually introduce myself to my countrymen. I met a woman here from San Francisco who told me she “would rather go here” than to the large European festivals more well known in the USA, say Salzburg or Edinburgh. – “the music is more interesting and more accessible to the real music lover,” she enthusiastically told me. Indeed a chamber music festival of this size and intensity makes sense (and perhaps could only exist) in Finland. The Finnish love of music of all kinds is legendary, and people from all over the country flock here in droves to submerge themselves in chamber music and enjoy the natural beauty. An astonishing 30,000-plus people (!) attend this festival, and they are very enthusiastic and appreciative. This is mind-boggling to me. Venues are typically packed with hundreds of people. During performances you could hear a pin drop…until the applause of course. When the audience particularly likes a performance, they clap rhythmically, Russian-style. If a piece by Jean Sibelius is played here it is a non-to-be-missed event…the audience positively lights up with pride.
- Musical story telling in Thirteen and One nights.
This astounding chamberpalooza is curated with creative flair and visionary imagination by its Artistic Director, Vladimir Mendelssohn. Concerts are ingeniously organized as a kind of story telling and Vlady plays the role of Sheherazade to Kuhmo’s music-addicted audiences, who return day after day to hear the next compelling tale. For instance one of this week’s concerts had a “storm” theme, starting with Beethoven’s Pastoral Piano Sonata, then to Brahms’ “Regenlied” Violin Sonata, Johann Strauss’ “Thunder and Lighting” Polka, Saariaho’s “Lichtbogen,” and finally ending with a piano transcription of “Somewhere over the Rainbow.” There are world premieres, obscure chamber operas, and of course enough Brahms sextets, Beethoven string quartets and Mendelssohn piano trios to satisfy the most hard core chamber music fan. Above all there are musical surprises and treasures around every corner, and a lot of new music to befriend. One of my favorite things to do here is to listen to a concert without reading the program, and just go with the flow. I’ve heard so much fabulous music here that I wouldn’t have otherwise been exposed to. But personally, I am waiting to hear a concert of music written about cats!
- It takes a village (of musicians).
Bringing Mr. Mendelssohn’s vision to life are the one hundred and sixty seven musicians who come from all over the world to play here. Some are very famous (Gidon Kremer for example), some play in top orchestras in Europe, some are rising stars. All are dedicated and versatile performers, and amiable colleagues: one has to be to perform in such an intense festival. A particularly striking contingent is the group of four composers-in-residence this summer - Kaija Saariaho, Krzysztof Penderecki, Magnus Lindberg and Sofia Gubaidulina - a list that reads like a who’s who of influential contemporary composers. The Finnish musicians are astounding. It’s an amazing (and rather Las Vegas style) experience to play chamber orchestra works here surrounded by incredibly talented Finns, all blond and gorgeous. On a personal note, I’m always surprised to be one of the few Americans, but that means I an exposed to different playing styles that are different and refreshing. CMSCVA fans will be pleased to learn that I am not the only musician in Kuhmo that performs for our Society back in Richmond – harpsichordist Carsten Schmidt and harpist Sivan Magen are also here.
- Don’t look behind that curtain!
As one can only imagine, organizing and producing a festival of this scope requires mind-boggling commitment. In the next installment of this blog, I’ll explore the nuts and bolts of this festival, and interview some of the key players who make it a reality.
Until then, “Hei hei!”
To learn more about the Kuhmo Festival, click here
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