A fascinating organ journey through Scandinavia and Finland – this is how this morning concert can be simply described. Who better to perform it on the Fokker organ than our resident organist Ere Lievonen? Lievonen, born and raised in Finland, explores folk music and composed organ works from Norway, Sweden, Denmark, and Finland. The transition from the tender Rukous by Sibelius’ contemporary Oskar Merikanto to the avant-garde works in the Livre d’orgue by the Swede Bengt Hambraeus feels like a cultural shock, yet under Lievonen’s hands a common thread might well emerge. The programme also includes compositions by Emil Sjögren (Sweden), Carl Nielsen (Denmark), Juhani Nuorvala (Finland), Geirr Tveitt (Norway), and folk music from the far north of Norway. Finland is not officially considered part of Scandinavia; it is more accurate to speak of the Nordic countries. Geographically, these countries form a unit, but does this also apply culturally and musically? With a cross-section of compositions from the North, drawn from various stylistic periods, Ere Lievonen attempts to provide an answer.
Harpsichordist, fortepianist, pianist, and organist Ere Lievonen (Finland, 1972) has specialised in both historical performance practice and contemporary music in Finland and the Netherlands (Utrecht, Amsterdam, and The Hague), studying with, among others, Jacques Ogg and Bart van Oort (fortepiano). He has performed at numerous festivals of early and new music across Europe and the United States. He studied piano and organ at several conservatoires and obtained his Master’s degree in fortepiano in 2011 at the Royal Conservatoire in The Hague. In addition to solo performances, Lievonen is active as a composer and chamber musician, participating in ensembles such as the Finnish Ensemble Ambrosius, which performs contemporary music (including works by Frank Zappa) on Baroque instruments, Beauty and the Beasts, a fortepiano trio with Anna Ryu (violin) and Diederik van Dijk (cello), and Ensemble SCALA, the house ensemble of the Huygens-Fokker Foundation. Since 2009 he has been the resident organist of the unique microtonal Fokker organ in the Muziekgebouw aan ’t IJ in Amsterdam. During this concert, Ere Lievonen will be musically accompanied by the outstanding violinist Jellantsje de Vries, who will take up the Norwegian Hardanger fiddle.