Something beautiful!

I want to share something really, really beautiful with you!

I'm in the middle of these breathtaking tunes all week, and it just feels so good!

Close your eyes and listen to it here!

Friday Night Special: The Reddress!

On Friday night I went to see a very extraordinary concert in Kaapelitehdas.

It was the opening night of Helsingin Juhlaviikot as well as a series of concerts under the name of Reddress: an actual red dress designed by the wonderful designer Aamu Song!

Pekka Kuusisto has curated the program which includes music, dance and speeches, each artist performing inside the dress!

The thing that makes it really unique is that the audience is also a part of the dress, sitting and lying under wraps in its' huge hem!

Oh the sweet feeling of warmth and closeness, music, lights and total relaxation! 

Who says we have to sit stiff in concerts?!

I love people who think outside the box and act on it, giving us new perspectives, new experiences, questioning the old, dusty ways of our behaviour. I want more of that!!

It was such a wonderful experience altogether, go see if you have a chance, it's on until Tuesday in Kaapelitehdas, two different performances each evening!

I'll let the pictures do the talking:

The director and choreographer of the Reddress, a sweet friend of mine, doing the mermaid-pose, beautiful!

And the artists of the evening: 

Sin Cos Tan!

Thank you Minna, I enjoyed enormously!!

Work, work, work!

Long days have been spent at work in a recording session! This is one definite sign of spring too: concert season comes to an end and the sun shines outside while we spend our days indoors in the hall!
We have a few weeks like this still ahead, but are having fun too, as you can see!
It's always nice to leave a mark of the work you do whereas concerts are always a one or two-time-thing!
Requires a lot of sitting though so a walk in the evening sun does good! Bye!

Weekend!

Saturday and Sunday went by in the most amusing way: on stage having fun with friends! We had our last performances this spring and there was some sparkling waiting for us!
After we finished we decided to go for dinner! Nothing fancy, just being together and enjoying the moment!

Now it's Monday, sun has been shining and the new week full of work is ahead! I feel energetic and good, I hope you do too!

Love and light, everyone!!

A night at the Ballet!

On Friday night I got to experience something I'd waited for some time now: the reconstruction of Igor Stravinsky's ballet Sacre du Printemps, The Rite of Spring. It's now showing in our National Ballet as the last part of a set of three choreographies, and it is amazing!!!
Everything has been made like in the premiere in Paris 1913, the evening that shook the audience to their core causing the biggest scandal the ballet-world had ever seen.
Since then it's never been the same.
The music has always been one of my favourites, it's very haunting, demonizing, and the rhythm is amazing, all leading to the inevitable.
The costumes, the setting, the choreography..one of the highlights of the year, definitely.

Check out the pages here if you got interested, there's still two shows left! But act fast, it was sold out to the last chair!

Beautiful weekend!

It's official: spring is here!
There's hardly any snow left in the streets and the sun is shining big! This is great!

I went for a morning walk, it was so beautiful! Birds are singing like crazy and the ice is melting fast!
My mind has been full of work for next week but there's always time to stop for a while and do something that brightens up your mind!

This is from Friday night!
We had a fantastic evening filled with beautiful music by Anna-Mari Kähärä. She'd composed songs to L. Onerva's lyrics, and four beautiful ladies on stage charmed us and the sold-out audience completely!
I demand more concerts like this!
Such an intimate space, a small theatre, a wonderful lecture by one of my favourite writers, Anna Kortelainen, who told us an inspiring story about Onerva, one of the strongest women of her time. The poems are beautiful, touching and still very today, and they turned even more meaningful with the music. It was wonderful, a million times thank you!!

Opera, my love!

What a lovely feeling it has been to get to start the weekend in peace! I've done my workout, had lunch and met with a dear friend of mine for a cup of tea and coffee! I like this, I feel good and right, it's a calm day.

But now I want to share something absolutely beautiful with you! I've had this aria in my head for the whole week, a piece of one of the most beautiful music ever written: Ella Giamma M'amó by Giuseppe Verdi, from the opera Don Carlo. It's just beautiful, pure and simple. Listen it here, and you know what I mean!

Have a fabulous and beautiful evening!

Amazing Adele

Today my husband and myself drove over to my Mother's to have dinner with family. It was the Day III of our Christmas celebrations. Stomach full, once again, of her cookings! It was so lovely and warm, this has been yet another beautiful Christmas, and I feel blessed to have been surrounded by the people I love the most.

On the way back home we listened to Adele who has absolutely stolen our hearts. I don't remember when was the last time I was so amazed by a voice, must be years ago. She's not a newcomer in our cd-collection, but she just constantly wows me every single time. There was a concert on tv the other night, live in Royal Albert Hall, London, recorded some two years ago, time before her surgery when she'd just hit the jackpot. She was so charismatic and beautiful, just standing there on stage in her beautiful dress and bare feet and sang straight to the hearts of the audience.
To me she's an old soul. I don't understand how a 20-year-old can write songs like that, or sing like that. She's pure gold and I can't wait to hear more, follow her career and just silently feel her move my heart.

You can get a glimpse of her here.

Amazing Adele by aveceva on Polyvore

Concert Halls Wuxi and Dalian

Good morning to you all! I'm one early bird over here! The best thing about jet lag is that you can start posting your blog or organizing things or making lists about Christmas, or anything at all when you can't sleep. I thought this was the easiest recovery ever, since I managed to fall back to sleep on two previous nights after waking up around 3.30, but maybe I was wrong. I'm wide awake now, and have been about two hours already! So let's start!

I wanted to show you pictures from the Concert halls we played in China. Both of these venues are brand new. The first concert was in Wuxi and I was very exited to get there, since the hall has been designed by a Finnish architect agency, and my beautiful Goddaughter's father was involved with the project as a designer and a project leader. It's amazing I think! The world is so small, and he is so talented! The hall itself was huge, and we were just at aaw trying to comprehend what we saw. He once said to me that China is every western architect's wet dream at the moment, because they've got the money, they want the wau-effect, and they want it big. I can see that, both of these halls were just huge! But I must say it's not all about appearances, both of these halls were also excellent acoustically, a fact which always justifies almost everything. If it's a great hall with no sound whatsoever, what's it good to anybody, no matter how big or beautiful or peculiar it might look. A musicians point of view might vary while playing on stage but we were told the overall sound was good in the audience. It's always difficult to adjust to different halls when you only get to play there once or twice, but you just sit down and do your job as you always do, and the conductor takes care of the rest. Here we go, first is Wuxi:

                   Then comes Dalian. This I thought felt cold and looked like an airport really!

Sweet Saturday!

We had a good time, me and the birthdaygirl! We went to see The Finnish RSO and Ismo Alanko in Musiikkitalo. They're having a concert right now as we speak, but we went to see the general rehearsal. Oh the amount of charisma in that person! I think I've been in love with Ismo Alanko since my 20s, but nowadays it's more about admiration and respect.. I think.. He's an amazing musician and lyricist, and his voice is just overwhelming. He's been around from the early 80s, continuously transforming his style of music and interpretation. I really have to hand it to him for walking his own way.

Today was about his songs arranged by contemporary Finnish composers and his first performance ever with a symphony orchestra. My little friend was as eager as myself, since she represents the next generation of Ismo-fans! Oh we enjoyed and talked about the things we heard over a cup of hot chocolate, white tea and some goodies. It was goood, all of it!

Music

Last weekend myself and my husband went to see a gig in Kallio. One of our favourite artists was performing solo, Mr. Tuomari Nurmio. He's got personality alright, a very charismatic old-school Finnish rock artist who's been around for decades. His lyrics are rough but beautiful at the same time, he knows what he sings about and makes you believe it. He's a storyteller. I think it's quite rare these days to find good music with an honest feeling. This was a perfect night!