In Paradisum concert on 27th of March features peaceful works

Published 20.03.2025

Mari Palo, Petteri Salomaa and the Sibelius Academy choirs on stage with KSO

The Kuopio Symphony Orchestra’s In Paradisum season concert on Thursday 27th of March at 6 pm will take the audience to music full of peace and beauty and dedicated to the deceased. The concert, which will be held at the Kuopio Music Centre’s Concert Hall, will feature Maurice Ravel’s Pavane and Couperin’s Tomb, as well as Arvo Pärt’s Cantus in memoriam of Benjamin Britten. The evening will conclude with Gabriel Fauré’s Requiem, conducted by Ruut Kiiski, in which soprano Mari Palo, baritone Petteri Salomaa and the Sibelius Academy choirs will perform on the stage with the orchestra.

Ravel dedicated Pavane to a patron and sewing machine heiress, Winnaretta Singer, later known as Princess Edmond de Polignac. It is not a funeral song for a recently deceased princess, but a song dedicated to “a princess from the past”.

Le Tombeau de Couperin (Couperin’s Tomb) is a six-movement composition for piano by Maurice Ravel. Ravel dedicated parts of it to his friends who died in World War 1. The composition is inspired by the dance styles of the Baroque period of the 1700s and by composers, to whom it is also a tribute.

The news of Benjamin Britten’s death in 1976 touched Arvo Pärt deeply. The composer has said: “I had just found Britten in myself. Just before his death, I began to appreciate the unusual purity of his music— I had a similar impression of purity in Guillaume de Machaut’s ballads. And I had wanted to meet Britten in person for a long time – and now I didn’t have the chance.” At that time, Pärt was finishing an elegiac orchestral piece, which he decided to dedicate to the memory of his deceased colleague, respecting and admiring his work.

November 2024 marked the 100th anniversary of Gabriel Fauré’s death. Requiem is one of Fauré’s best-known compositions and was also performed at his funeral. The passage of parts of Fauré’s Requiem differs significantly from the standard of liturgical texts. Fauré included two new movements, the lyrical Pie Jesu and the transcendental In Paradisum with its soaring vocal lines. He also left out Dies Irae and Tuba Mirum. The prevailing mood is calmness and serenity. The work has often been called the Requiem without the Last Judgment. At the concert on 27th of March the KSO performs the work together with magnificent soloists and the Sibelius Academy Choirs from both Kuopio and Helsinki.

Before the concert, at 5:30 pm at the Kuopio Music Centre Hall of Light, a Pre-Talk event open to everyone is organized.

Tickets. 33 € / 27 € senior citizens and groups min. 20 persons / 11 € children under the age of 16 and students
4 € concert day discount ticket for students and young people under the age of 20 (available for purchase on the concert day at the Kuopio Music Centre Ticket Office)

Prices include the Kuopio Music Centre service fee 2 € / ticket. The service fees vary depending on the place of purchase.

KUOPIO SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA
Producer & Publicity Manager Elina Prepula, tel. 044 718 2364, elina.prepula(at)kuopio.fi
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