Latest news with #Finlandia
Yahoo
a day ago
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Finlandia Vodka and SXSW London host luncheon in honour of Jane Goodall PhD DBE
LONDON, June 4, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- Finlandia Vodka, in collaboration with SXSW London, hosted an exclusive luncheon yesterday to celebrate the extraordinary work of renowned ethologist and conservationist Dr. Jane Goodall and her Institute. Known for the ongoing research into the lives of wild chimpanzees of Gombe, Tanzania – now in its 65th year – and for the many programmes created to benefit people, animals and the environment. Dr. Goodall is author of many books for adults and children and has featured in countless documentaries, films including 'Reasons for Hope' the IMAX currently being shown around the world. This unique event brought together a select group of influencers and thought leaders to honour Dr. Goodall's lifelong dedication to conservation and environmental stewardship. As part of this special occasion, Finlandia Vodka is proud to announce a €30,000 donation to the Jane Goodall Institute UK, which Dr. Goodall has designated to support Dr. Jane's Dream – the Jane Goodall Centre for Hope. This exciting education centre is due to open in October 2026 and will attract thousands of visitors who pass through Arusha as well as serving the local communities. It will feature a series of rooms showcasing the life and work of Dr. Jane Goodall and her Institutes and include a garden and theatre and the work of many African artists. "I am grateful for Finlandia's donation and their support and to be here for this wonderful lunch," said Jane Goodall DBE. In addition to honouring Dr. Goodall's impactful work, Finlandia shared with the audience the idea of new global brand campaign, "It's Soooo Fine", a celebration of living authentically, embracing individuality, and enjoying the present moment. Beyond traditional media, with this event Finlandia took an approach with a philanthropic twist, inviting a curated group of "friends of Finlandia", a diverse collection of thought-leaders, innovators, and visionaries from around the world to engage with the brand in a meaningful way while contributing to a noble cause. "We are thrilled to partner with the Jane Goodall Institute, an organization whose work we have long admired and supported," said Yannis Athanasiadis, Global Leader of Finlandia Vodka. "Jane Goodall and her Institute embody the values that our brand espouses, including authenticity, sustainability and longevity." About the Jane Goodall Institute The Jane Goodall Institute (JGI) is a global, community-led conservation organization founded in 1977 that advances the vision and work of Jane Goodall with 25 chapters around the world. Core programmes include the ongoing research into the lives of wild chimpanzees in Gombe, Tanzania, improving the lives of captive primates, other apes and their habitats, and empowering people to be compassionate citizens in order to inspire conservation of the natural world we all share. JGI uses research, community-led conservation, best-in-class animal welfare standards, and the innovative use of science and technology to inspire hope and take action for the common good. Jane Goodall's Roots & Shoots is empowering young people of all ages to become involved in hands on projects of their choosing to benefit the community, animals and the environment we all share and is active in more than 75 countries. About Finlandia Vodka Finlandia Vodka is a leading vodka brand established in 1970. It is available in classic and several flavoured versions. Two elements of Finnish abundant nature define Finlandia Vodka. Suomi (Finnish) barley ripened by a Midnight Sun that does not set for 72 days, and a pure glacial Finnish water. The result of this is a silky-smooth taste and a velvety mouthfeel. Photo - View original content to download multimedia: SOURCE Finlandia Vodka
San Francisco Chronicle
24-05-2025
- Entertainment
- San Francisco Chronicle
Esa-Pekka Salonen and S.F. Symphony release new recordings on Apple Music
As Esa-Pekka Salonen reaches the beginning of the end of his tenure as music director of the San Francisco Symphony, his work with the institution is being further memorialized on Apple Music Classical. The music platform has released Salonen and the Symphony's performance of Jean Sibelius' ' Finlandia,' recorded live in concert March 14-16, for fans to stream. Three additional digital-only spatial audio recordings are set to release on the Apple Music Classical app in the coming months. Igor Stravinsky's ' Symphony in Three Movements ' will be made available on July 4, followed by Sibelius' Symphony No. 1 on Aug. 15, and Salonen's Cello Concerto featuring principal cello Rainer Eudeikis, which does not have a release date yet. They are all produced through SFS Media, the Symphony's audio-visual label. The Symphony began its partnership with Apple Music Classical upon its release in 2023, and Salonen and the orchestra have previously released 11 recordings through the platform, including compositions by composers Anders Hillborg, Elizabeth Ogonek and Ottorino Respighi. Apple Music Classical is available for free to most Apple Music subscribers and allows its users to make playlists, utilize optimal search features, and enjoy high-quality immersive audio. Salonen's final shows with the Symphony are nearing as the 2024-25 season draws to a close, but classical music fans have a few more opportunities to catch the conductor in person. He is scheduled to conduct Stravinsky's 'The Firebird' Friday, May 23, through Sunday, May 25, and his last scheduled performances will be of Gustav Mahler's Symphony No. 2, 'Resurrection,' on June 12-14. The Finnish conductor and composer took over the music director position from Michael Tilson Thomas in 2020 and announced his departure from the Symphony last spring. He attributed his decision to differences with leadership, stating that he does 'not share the same goals for the future of the institution as the Board of Governors does.' Salonen currently has no plans to join the forthcoming season's lineup, not even to return for a guest appearance.
The Guardian
28-04-2025
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
RPO/Petrenko review – a blistering, multi-hued Shostakovich
Southbank Centre's life-enhancing Multitudes festival is turning out to be a stimulating mix of orchestral fireworks and artistic cross-fertilisation. Of course, the trick with multidisciplinary work is to ensure that one form doesn't overwhelm the others, and this Royal Philharmonic take on Shostakovich's epic Leningrad Symphony, with imagery by Russian art/film director Kirill Serebrennikov and video artist Ilya Shagalov, got the balance just right. A brief first half offered a thrusting reading of Sibelius's Finlandia, a more straightforwardly patriotic work than Shostakovich's tantalisingly equivocal symphony. Conductor Vasily Petrenko proved a master of dramatic contrasts, from the opening rasp of low brass to the composer's final proclamation of nationhood. Kurt Weill's Four Walt Whitman Songs were equally effective, thanks to Roderick Williams' honest simplicity and razor-sharp diction. The German expat's gawky settings of nationalistic poetry have the potential to get chopped up and tossed into word salads, but not with Williams at the helm. Firm-toned and equally firmly committed, he landed all four with musical panache and lyrical insight. As for the symphony, Serebrennikov and Shagalov allowed Petrenko's blistering, multi-hued interpretation of Shostakovich's cinematic masterpiece to command centre stage. Their absorbing but never over-fussy illustrations offered extra-cerebral stimulation with evocative and occasionally provocative imagery playing out on three giant screens. Shostakovich's four movements were visualised as a series of discrete yet interconnected narratives, broadening the storyline from Soviet resilience in the face of the destruction of Leningrad (whether by Hitler or, as Shostakovich once suggested, by Stalin) to the impact of man's technological overreach on the planet. The live-guided imagery, which referenced 20th-century constructivism and contemporary sci-fi, was inspired, from a psychedelically infused eyeball scanning the heavens to the blood-red vegetation of a haunted forest. The opening Allegretto channelled the Icarus myth, the on-screen action going cheek-by-jowl with Petrenko's masterly build of Shostakovich's battle theme. In contrast, the light-footed second movement was accompanied by dancing cells and synapses. A poignant, post-apocalyptic Adagio led into an intense, emotional finale where Technicolor flowers blossomed as vividly as Shostakovich's music. Petrenko, visibly moved at the end, never put a foot wrong. Multitudes, at London's Southbank Centre, continues until 3 May.
Yahoo
04-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Settle Orchestra delights audiences with spring concert programme
By Lindy Williams Harry Lai, Settle Orchestra's conductor for this year, guided the group through a vigorous and exciting programme for its spring concerts, which took place in Settle on March 22, and in Skipton on March 29. The programme began with Sibelius's Finlandia, a wonderful work, written in 1899, that reflects the struggles of Finland to gain independence from Russia. The playing at the opening was excellent, with a wonderful sound from the brass and woodwind sections, followed by great warmth from the strings. Harry showed his musical skill by emphasising the contrasting emotions in the work, resulting in a most enjoyable performance, with the different sections of the orchestra demonstrating considerable skills. Next we were treated to a little known work by Dvorak, The Noon Witch. This tells a sinister story, of an infant perceived to be misbehaving and being threatened with a visit from the Noon Witch, who does indeed appear, with tragic consequences. Throughout the performance the orchestra thoroughly captured the spirit of the music, in tight rhythms, expressive phrasing, and a great feeling of drive. Special mention must go to the oboe soloist who played with exceptional musicianship. With its variations in tempo and contrasting dynamics this is a difficult work and we heard it played very well, thanks to the extraordinary talent of the conductor. After the interval came Tchaikovsky's Symphony number 5. This is a big work and to take it on with a relatively small string section is a challenge. On this occasion it was hard to believe that the orchestra has only 15 violins, three violas, and three cellos. Credit for this must go to the orchestra's talented and hugely popular leader, Anne Heaton. This was altogether a skilful performance and Harry never seemed to lose sight of the work's architecture as he guided the players on Tchaikovsky's musical journey. The opening could have had a little more rhythmic precision, but it can take a few bars to get into the stride in such a massive work, and the players soon settled in. The hauntingly beautiful horn solo at the start of the slow movement was immaculately played by first horn, Ewan Hudson, who not only made a lovely sound but captured in his phrasing the intense emotional content of the music. (In the summer concerts he will be soloist in Weber's Concertino for horn and orchestra). All the sections of the orchestra seemed completely immersed in this performance, with focus and attention to detail. Harry was in complete command and the players responded magnificently. His - and their - musicianship quite simply shone. This was one of the best Settle Orchestra concerts I have heard. It was a feat of great skill to perform such a challenging programme and, although I rarely use the word, on this occasion I feel safe to say that the playing was phenomenal. The players are very fortunate to have such a talented conductor this year. Harry has a natural and deep understanding of the music as well as the technical skills to bring out the best in the players. The summer concerts are not to be missed and they take place on June 21 in Settle and June 28 in Skipton.
The Guardian
26-01-2025
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
The Sound of Utopia: Musicians in the Time of Stalin review – hymn to the exiled and executed
Through all the blood and ice of Russian history, the national music has been a balm. Composers and performers have given a voice to the soul of their people, in all its suffering and bloody-mindedness, as well as to the enigma of their illimitable homeland. In the depths of the German siege of Leningrad of 1941-44, in which an estimated 1.5 million people died, Stalin airlifted musicians into the starving city in an effort to raise morale. Music has also soundtracked turning points in the cold war and the career of Vladimir Putin. When the KGB defector Oleg Gordievsky was smuggled out of Moscow in the boot of a car by British spymasters in 1985, the signal that he was finally safe was Sibelius's Finlandia playing on the car stereo. After Russia launched a military intervention in Syria in 2015 on behalf of the now departed Bashar al-Assad, Putin flew the cellist Sergei Roldugin to Palmyra to perform among its ancient ruins, in an echo of Leningrad. Michel Krielaars, a Dutch journalist and classical music enthusiast, was posted to Moscow by his newspaper in 2007. A neighbour told him that, as a boy, he had attended recitals given by Sviatoslav Richter, 'the greatest pianist of the Soviet Union for nearly half a century', according to Krielaars. He wonders what became of this 'timid' maestro, who would tiptoe from the wings of a concert hall 'as though unsure of what business he has there'. Despite his renown, he fell under suspicion during the second world war because his father was German. Richter Sr was executed by the secret police in Odesa. The pianist refused to play in that city again. It's now a Ukrainian stronghold resisting Putin's forces. Richter had begun his career thanks to a mentor who put him up in his own home, where the tyro slept 'under the piano'. Whether or not this was a literal description of the bedroom arrangements, it sounds like a mordant Russian expression for the lot of Richter and his fellow Soviet-era musicians, who are recalled in The Sound of Utopia. Sleeping under the piano is something you'd do if you couldn't be sure of keeping hold of it or if you had nowhere else to go. Rediscovered in these pages are not only vanished soloists and composers but airbrushed music hall turns and song thrushes including Klavdiya Shulzhenko, 'the Russian Vera Lynn'. They were adored by the public but lived in fear of their tin-eared critics in the Kremlin. They were encouraged to produce uplifting patriotic works in the folk tradition, while Stalin's goons quivered like tuning forks for anything that smacked of western decadence. Forbidden passages were classified as 'formalism', whatever that meant – the rare virtuoso who was bold enough to ask received a dusty answer, or worse. At the height of Stalin's 'Terror', in 1936-38, when more than 1.5 million people were arrested and 700,000 killed, musicians were among those 'persecuted, shipped off to labour camps or executed; their compositions and recordings were destroyed or banned; their performances cancelled', says Krielaars. A few years ago, The Lost Pianos of Siberia was a nonfiction hit for Sophy Roberts; this book is a companion piece, about the lost pianists. The musicians exiled to the boondocks were the lucky ones – even there, the music-loving Soviets ran academies – but these were barren, inhospitable places, an asteroid belt orbiting Moscow and St Petersburg and their glittering conservatories. There are stories here to freeze the veins, but also to stir the heart, and even a little gallows humour. During a sleepless night in the headquarters of the secret police, where the composer Vsevolod Zaderatsky and his fellow prisoners were due to be shot in the morning, Zaderatsky sat down at a piano and played what amounted to a finale for himself. The head of the death squad, who heard him playing, set him free the next day. The other condemned men were killed. The composer Sergei Prokofiev affected snazzy yellow socks like a playboy and tore around Moscow in his 'fireball', an imported Opel Kadett. When it was his turn to be accused of formalism – by the USSR's propagandist-in-chief, no less – the master snorted: 'What right do you have to talk to me like that!' He was left alone after that, at least for a while. Following Stalin's death, a pianist enlisted to play sombre airs for the great crowds who filed past his coffin found that the pedals of the instrument weren't working, so he stuffed a score behind them. Krielaars says, 'This alarmed the mourners, who thought the man kneeling next to the piano was planting a bomb under Stalin.' The name Shostakovich is like a leitmotif running through these studies: here is the extraordinary composer putting in a good word with the apparatchiks to save a fellow musician; there he is under a cloud as the party newspaper damns his opera Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk. But astonishingly, Dmitri Shostakovich doesn't apparently merit a chapter of his own – the man who reportedly stood in the stairwell of his apartment building at night, fully clothed and holding his suitcase, waiting to be disappeared. It's a strange omission from a book about omissions, which is a moving threnody to musicians who truly suffered for their art, many of them effaced from the record like notes struck on a dummy keyboard. Sign up to Bookmarks Discover new books and learn more about your favourite authors with our expert reviews, interviews and news stories. Literary delights delivered direct to you after newsletter promotion The Sound of Utopia: Musicians in the Time of Stalin by Michel Krielaars (translated by Jonathan Reeder) is published by Pushkin Press (£25). To support the Guardian and Observer, order your copy at Delivery charges may apply
