Nature Symphony (Luontosinfonia) comes to Helsinki’s Finlandia Hall as a film concert on Friday, December 4, with two performances that evening, at 18:00 and 20:30. Tapiola Sinfonietta, conducted by Erkki Lasonpalo, performs Panu Aaltio’s music live to picture with the Grex Musicus choir and soloist Vilma Jää, about 90 performers in all.
The concert is an updated version of the 2019 film Nature Symphony, directed by Marko Röhr. The picture draws on a 2,000-hour archive of nature footage by cinematographer Teemu Liakka, filmed mostly during the making of Tale of a Forest and Tale of a Lake, and pairs familiar scenes from the documentaries with footage never shown before. The music does the same: cues from the films sit alongside new music written for this concert, including new parts for Vilma Jää. The program runs in six themed sections and lasts about 1 hour 13 minutes.
“Nature Symphony brings together music inspired by Finnish nature that I’ve written over almost 15 years,” Aaltio says. “It has been wonderful to return to a work that means so much to me, and to find new colors in it through Vilma Jää’s unique voice.”
Tickets for the 18:00 and 20:30 performances are on sale at Live Nation.
