Suite, Tale and Sonata!

Leevi Madetoja wrote the delightful ‘lyric suite’ commissioned by the Kalevala society, to celebrate the national Kalevala day. From these Finnish sceneries the concert continues with mysterious Czeck melancholic Fairy tales by Leoš Jánaçek. The piece is loosely based on an epic poem by the Russian poet Vasili Zukovski. The concerts ends with the great cello-piano sonata by Dmitri Shostakovich. It was composed just before Stalin forbid many compositions to be performed, as he didn’t find them nationalistic enough.

Jan-Erik Gustafsson, cello

Annika Palm, piano