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We live in the most pleasant time in history, and yet we still don't know how to enjoy ourselves. Have we forgotten the art of rejoicing? This is what Iiro Rantala asks in his double concerto Joy of Life, which is full of virtuosity and witty banter for orchestra, violin and piano. Even the old rascal Beethoven shows a childish sense of playfulness; the Eighth Symphony's arsenal of pranks includes at least self-irony, parody and exaggeration, performed with a serious face, of course.

The Tapiola Sinfonietta's autumn season opens on a romantic note. Elina Vähälä, one of our country's most internationally successful instrumental soloists, interprets Max Bruch's Violin Concerto No. 1, the immense popularity of which the composer tried in vain to achieve in his later concerts. Andrew Manze became known as one of the most respected baroque violinists of our time before taking up the baton with a completely different repertoire.

Canadian pianist Angela Hewitt is known for her interpretations of Bach, and Bach is also available in PianoEspoo's extensive selection. Bach's Piano Concerto in G minor may sound familiar, as it is the composer's arrangement of his Violin Concerto in A minor. In 1784, Mozart did not hesitate to advertise his quintet for piano and wind instruments to his father: "The best work I have composed so far". Many could argue that the C major concerto, completed the following year with its charming slow movements, surpasses even that.

Music sometimes contains composers' secrets that are not meant for everyone to hear. Shostakovich performs his first cello concerto with his D-Es-CH theme formed from his initials, but in the finale, Stalin begins to taunt him with his favorite tune. Schubert left his B minor symphony unfinished, even though he tried for a long time to come up with a sequel to it. Recent research reveals that the work may have been intentionally "Unfinished". The text written by Schubert around the same time tells of a difficult family crisis, the painful memories of which are reflected in two movements of the symphony. In the Cortége by Sibelius Prize-winning Sir Harrison Birtwistle, the musicians perform a mysterious ritual in front of the audience.

Future stars studying in the Sibelius Academy's conducting class will lead the Tapiola Sinfonietta in an After Work Special concert. After the concert, the first Piano Classics sequels of the season will take place in Tapiola Hall.

Michael Collins, one of the world's leading clarinet artists, will bring a world premiere performance by Sally Beamish.

It is rare to witness a public execution and the subsequent “dream of a severed head” in a concert, but Hector Berlioz’s Symphony No. 1 does. Of course, it is all fantasy, but reality was more wonderful than fiction. In the symphony, Berlioz murders his love, the English actress Harriet Smithson, but years later married her. Michael Drapkin has reduced the orchestra in his arrangement, but not much emotion. Canadian-Finnish composer Matthew Whittall’s new oboe concerto is tailored for the brilliant oboe principal of the Tapiola Sinfonietta, Anni Haapaniemi. Whittall was inspired by the contrast between light and shadow in his composition, which also served as the starting point for the visual design of the concert.

Irina Zahharenkova’s period as artist-in-residence at Tapiola Sinfonietta and interpreter of Beethoven’s piano concertos ends majestically with the “Emperor Concerto”. Beethoven famously did not care for emperors and received the additional title of the fifth and final piano concerto from the publisher. The title is not misleading, however, as it reminds us of the composer’s competence as a master of musical linear tactics. The “Sixth” piano concerto is Beethoven’s own arrangement of an earlier violin concerto. The cadenzas composed for it and everything that Beethoven invented for the left hand make the work interesting. Zahharenkova has built a personal and inspired whole from the piano concertos.

“At the end of the concert, half the audience clapped their hands, the other half hissed in disapproval. There were even those who hissed and clapped at the same time.”

In March 1913, Arnold Schönberg conducted a musical program at the Vienna Musikverein, which was later called the “scandal concert.” The program included his Chamber Symphony No. 1, Op. 9, a wall-breaker in the prevailing musical order. In addition, Gustav Mahler’s Kindertotenlied and Alban Berg’s songs to poems written on landscape postcards by the Bohemian poet Peter Altenberg were heard. A general uproar broke out during the Altenberg songs, and supporters and opponents of the modernists clashed.