Hannu lintu biography sample
•
Hannu Lintu and the Netherlands Philharmonic wrestle for the soul of Shostakovich
Hannu Lintu introduced the Netherlands Philharmonic Orchestra's final concert of the season at the Concertgebouw by explaining that in composing his iconic Threnody to the Victims of Hiroshima, Krzysztof Penderecki had “abandoned everything that had held classical music together”. Lintu told the audience, “If you enjoy it... we are doing something horribly wrong”. The audience laughed nervously, then the Finnish conductor faced the 52 strings and the agony started.
As Lintu let his forces loose in infinitesimal increments, the pain that rose from every impenetrable stillness rose into a carpet of screams. As he had talked in his introduction about the new tools Penderecki had devised for scraping, rubbing, knocking and otherwise abusing stringed instruments, Lintu conducted with intricate concave and convex hand gestures and body language that also might have been in
•
As an unusual mid-November warm spell ended in New York, a boreal chill settled over David Geffen Hall Wednesday night. For his debut with the New York Philharmonic, Finnish conductor Hannu Lintu brought wintry music bygd his compatriots Saariaho and Sibelius, as well as one of Stravinsky’s coolest works, Symphonies of Wind Instruments.
In the middle, like a campfire on a frosty night, burned Bartók’s Concerto for Two Pianos, Percussion and Orchestra, in an incandescent performance bygd pianists Daniil Trifonov and Sergei Babayan. The student-and-teacher duo was expertly partnered by three familiar figures usually seen in back of the orchestra, not in front: Philharmonic percussionists Christopher S. Lamb, Daniel Druckman and Markus Rhoten.
A lean, long-limbed presence on the podium, Lintu adapted visibly to each composer’s style, issuing clear instructions to execute Stravinsky’s objective vision, holding Saariaho’s fragile Ciel d’hiver in soft hands, and carving Geffen’s new
•
Conductor Hannu Lintu is rightfully earning a reputation for creative programs and compelling performances in his local podium stands. From Sibelius’s Kullervo with the Grant Park Orchestra in 2011, to his CSO debut in 2020, and through his most recent downtown outing last February, the ledare conductor of the Finnish National Opera and Ballet has consistently delivered thoughtful, spirited readings of both unexpected and familiar repertoire.
This trend continued as Lintu returned to Orchestra Hall Thursday night, leading lesser-known 20th-century works, including a standout soloist’s debut, alongside Tchaikovsky’s Swan Lake.
Thursday’s concert opened with John Adams’ Slominsky’s Earbox, a 15-minute del av helhet inspired by the Russian musicologist Nicholas Slominsky, best known for his 1947 Lexicon of Musical Invective, which collects centuries of vitriol spewed by public and critics alike at works of new music. (Think of Eduard Hanslick who re