The photographs of this series have been taken either in the Finlandia hall or have it in its centre. The Finlandia hall by Alvar Aalto is situated in the heart of Helsinki and was opened in 1971.
The photos in the blog body feature a few – there are more in the gallery at the end of the post. Please play around with your browser’s size to get the best view of the photographs.
From 2009 to 2016 I acted as the festival photographer for Helsinki Festival. During that time I covered numerous classical concerts in Helsinki, Finlandia hall (the Hall from here on) as one of many venues.
I have a somewhat personal relationship with the Hall as one of my earliest memories is from the Hall itself. We were watching or listening to if you will to Tchaikovsky’s Swan Lake. I must have been six years old.
My first photographs from the Hall are from 2008 when Simón Bolívar Youth Orchestra of Venezuela was a guest of the Festival and performed here.
Jose Antonio Abreu. Father of El Sistema, a network of music education programmes for children out of which the Simon Bolivar Youth Orchestra has been formed.
Gustavo Dudamel rehearsing with the Orquesta in the Hall.
Esa-Pekka Salonen rehearsing with the Orquesta in the Hall.
The general rehearsal generates a full house.
The concert.
Salonen: LA Variations conducted by Esa-Pekka Salonen.
The concert.
Castellanos, Evencio: Santa Cruz de Pacairigua, conducted by Gustavo Dudamel.
The concert.
Arturo Marquez: Danzon no. 2, conducted by Esa-Pekka Salonen.
The concert.
A few close ups of the musicians.
In 2009 during the Helsinki Festival Pierre Boulez introduces Ircam (Ensemble Intercontemporain) to Helsinki at the Hall and during the intermission a session called Meet the Artist is held, August 14th.
Meet the Artist – Yann Robin, Barbara Hannigan, Susanna Mälkki and host Risto Nieminen (from left to right).
And Esa-Pekka Salonen brought the Philharmonia Orchestra to Helsinki. Rehearsal. Here is a short video by Philharmonia Orchestra from their trip.
And finally two more recent photographs of the building from a bird’s eye view – summer 2018. These are part of my on-going #helsinkifromabove project.
Below is the photo gallery with the same photos as above with an additional few.
