50 years old | Composer Sebastian Fagerlund sought inspiration from Rammstein’s chord masses for his breakthrough work

The composer the clearest measure of success is how much his music is played. Sebastian Fagerlund can be counted as one of Finland’s most successful, because his works are cooling the world at breakneck speed.

One of the latest successful works is the acclaimed cello concerto Nomadwhich was premiered in spring 2019 in Hamburg by a cellist Nicolas AltstaedtElbphilharmonie Orchestra and Conductor Hannu Lintu. It was also heard fresh in Finland, as the Elbphilharmonie and the Radio Symphony Orchestra commissioned a concerto from Fagerlund together.

Also in the post-corona concert life Nomad has continued his life, because at the end of October it was heard in Tampere, now a cellist by Jonathan Roozeman played.

“I was very happy when Jonathan started interpreting it,” says Fagerlund. “It feels especially great when concerts and orchestral works start to take on a life of their own. They are out of your hands and you notice that there is an interest in that music.”

Nomad is a representative example of Sebastian Fagerlund’s music, as his orchestral works are typically commissioned by several orchestras, and his concerts are typically commissioned by international star musicians.

Fagerlund is also happy that many of his works continue to garner performances around the world as new performers take them up. For example, the Deutsche Radio Philharmonie performs in the spring Isola (2007), Ottawa’s National Arts Center Orchestra Chamber symphony (2021) and the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra I drifted (2017).

Fagerlund is from Parais and started his musical career as a violinist. He studied violin at the Turku Conservatory and began to compose more seriously as a teenager – his first compositions had already been created when he was less than ten years old, when he started composing on the violin small solo works and later his own cadenzas Mozart’s for violin concerts.

After graduating as a violinist, he transferred To the composition class of the Sibelius Academy, from which he graduated with a master’s degree in 2004. His career took off, but soon a wall hit and no music was produced for half a year. Finally opened the plug clarinet concerto (2006), which also became his breakthrough work.

“The clarinet concerto was the piece where I found a way for myself. Many things opened up, both expressively and technically. That really started my international career.”

Even nowadays Fagerlund considers the clarinet concerto one of the most important works of his career. Another landmark work was born ten years later, when he completed the National Opera Hötsonaten operabased on the libretto Ingmar Bergman screenplay of the film of the same name.

“Höstsonate was my first big opera, which crystallized a lot of everything I had done in the previous ten years.”

When writing the opera, Fagerlund received professional help from his wife, a soprano From Angelika Klasi. “When composing the opera, I often went through the vocal lines with him,” says Fagerlund. “I feel lucky to have a family where music is such a natural part of all of our lives.”

In addition to Fagerlund and Klas, the family includes a 15-year-old Maximilian-a boy who plays the piano. “It’s amazing to hear how he puts something together Chopin’s while practicing etudes, seamlessly transition to jazz improvisation when you need a break from that Chopin,” Fagerlund thanks.

Although Fagerlund himself is typically a composer of classical art music, he is no stranger to other types of music either. “Of course not. When I started composing the clarinet concerto, I had just been to a Rammstein concert. Clarinet concerto soloist by Christoffer Sundqvist and we talked then that we want the same energy and sound mass for the concert.”

Perhaps it is precisely in this sense that the clarinet concerto has shown the direction of Fagerlund’s international success. Musically, Fagerlund’s works are often energetic, full of color and strongly progressive, and a large amount of movement is characteristic especially of orchestral works.

But his music has also had time to change during a career that lasted about 20 years. Right now, he is writing a triple concerto, which he wrote for the Storioni piano trio as a soloist at the request of several orchestras, as well as To höstsonaten related Helena’s Songwhich he composed for violin and orchestra.

“More and more I have come to the conclusion that in the situation when you dare to show something relatively reduced but terribly powerful, you are at the heart of the real thing. Of course, it’s impressive to hear a huge flurry of ideas and lightning-quick changes, but there’s something special about the sensitivity.”