Heavenly Lights Nicolas Altstaedt, Ian Bostridge, Olli Mustonen

• Olli Mustonen (b. 1967): Taivaanvalot. Symphony for Tenor, Cello and Piano:
• 1 Mustonen: Taivaanvalot. Symphony for Tenor, Cello and Piano 28:30
• Zoltán Kodály (1882 - 1967): Cello Sonatina:
• 2 Kodály: Cello Sonatina 08:15
• Sonata for Cello and Piano, Op. 4:
• 3 Kodály: Sonata for Cello and Piano, Op. 4: I. Fantazia - Adagio di molto 08:02
• 4 Kodály: Sonata for Cello and Piano, Op. 4: II. Allegro con spirito 08:18
• Olli Mustonen: Cello Sonata:
• 5 Mustonen: Cello Sonata: I. Misterioso 04:13
• 6 Mustonen: Cello Sonata: II. Andantino 04:23
• 7 Mustonen: Cello Sonata: III. Precipitato 01:32
• 8 Mustonen: Cello Sonata: IV. Con visione 04:35
• Total Runtime 01:07:48

Info zu Heavenly Lights

Für diesen fünften Teil der Lockenhaus-Festival-Reihe unter der künstlerischen Leitung von Nicolas Altstaedt präsentiert der Cellist zwei Werke des finnischen Komponisten Olli Mustonen (geb. 1967, Schüler von Rautavaara), darunter „Heavenly Lights“ (Taivaanvalot) für Tenor, Cello und Klavier, hier dargeboten von Ian Bostridge, Nicolas Altstaedt und dem Komponisten am Klavier. Der englische Tenor brachte das Werk 2016 in seiner ursprünglichen Kammermusikfassung zur Uraufführung, die hier erstmals aufgenommen wurde. Im Jahre 2020 entsteht eine Orchesterfassung, doch das Originalstück trägt dennoch den Titel „Symphony“: „Dieses Werk war für mich eine Offenbarung, sobald ich es entdeckte. Wir tauchen ein in die Ära der finnischen Barden und der Volksgedichte des Kalevala, einer legendären und mystischen Welt, deren Geschichten uns alle berühren, unabhängig von unserem Herkunftsland“, sagt Altstaedt. „Eine Nähe zur Volkskunst, wie sie Kodály suchte und fand“: Seine Sonate op. 4 (1909–1910), seine Sonatine (1920) und die Sonate, die Mustonen 2006 schrieb – alle für Cello und Klavier – bilden ebenfalls Teil dieses mitreißenden und fesselnden Programms.

Ian Bostridge, Tenor
Nicolas Altstaedt, Cello
Olli Mustonen, Klavier

Ian Bostridge
CBE’s extraordinary international career has taken him to the foremost concert halls, orchestras and opera houses in the world. Synonymous with the works of Schubert and Britten, his recital career has taken him to the Salzburg, Edinburgh, Munich, Vienna, Aldeburgh, and Schwarzenberg Schubertiade festivals and to the main stages of Carnegie Hall, the Bayerische Staatsoper, La Monnaie and Teatro alla Scala. In opera, Ian has received particular praise for his interpretation of Aschenbach (Death in Venice) at the Deutsche Oper and Peter Quint (The Turn of the Screw) for Teatro alla Scala. His recordings have won all the major international record prizes and have been nominated for 15 Grammys.

Highlights of the 25/26 season include Peter Quint The Turn of the Screw for Teatro dell’Opera di Roma; staged performances of Schubert Winterreise directed by Deborah Warner at the Athénée Théâtre Louis-Jouvet, Paris; Britten War Requiem with the St Louis Symphony Orchestra conducted by Stéphane Denève; staged performances of Bach St Matthew Passion directed by Romeo Castellucci at the Teatro Maggio Musicale Fiorentino with Kent Nagano; and Britten Nocturne and Serenade with the Munich Rundfunkorchester. He will appear in recital with chamber ensembles including the Oberon Trio, Fretwork and Europa Galante.

Ian has held artistic residencies at the Vienna Konzerthaus and Schwarzenberg Schubertiade, the Barbican, the Luxembourg Philharmonie, the Wigmore Hall and Hamburg Laeiszhalle. Ian has also participated in a Carte-Blanche series with Thomas Quasthoff at the Amsterdam Concertgebouw, a Perspectives series at Carnegie Hall, and the inaugural Artistic Residency with the Seoul Philharmonic Orchestra. Ian has worked with the Berliner Philharmoniker, Wiener Philharmoniker, Chicago, Boston, London and BBC Symphony orchestras, the London, New York, Los Angeles Philharmonic orchestras, the Rotterdam Philharmonisch Orkest, Accademia di Santa Cecilia and Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra under Sir Simon Rattle, Sir Colin Davis, Sir Andrew Davis, Seiji Ozawa, Sir Antonio Pappano, Riccardo Muti, Mstislav Rostropovich, Daniel Barenboim, Daniel Harding and Donald Runnicles.

A prolific recording artist, Ian’s recent Pentatone recording of Schubert’s Winterreise with Thomas Adès won the Vocal Recording of the Year 2020 in the International Classical Music Awards. Other recordings include Schubert’s Die schöne Müllerin with Graham Johnson (Gramophone Award 1996), Tom Rakewell The Rake’s Progress with Sir John Eliot Gardiner (Grammy Award, 1999), and Belmonte Die Entführung aus dem Serail with William Christie.

An internationally celebrated author and academic, Ian Bostridge’s Schubert’s Winter Journey: Anatomy of an Obsession was published by Faber and Faber in the UK and Knopf in the USA in 2014, and his most recent book Song and Self was published in 2023. He was made a CBE in the 2004 New Year’s Honours.

Nicolas Altstaedt
German-French cellist Nicolas Altstaedt is one of the most sought after and versatile artists today. As a soloist, conductor and artistic director, he performs repertoire spanning from early music to the contemporary.

Since his highly acclaimed debut with Wiener Philharmoniker and Gustavo Dudamel at the Lucerne Festival, recent notable residencies and collaborations include Budapest Festival Orchestra with Iván Fischer, SWR Sinfonieorchester Baden-Baden und Freiburg with Teodor Currentzis, Helsinki Festival with Esa-Pekka Salonen, Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie with Thomas Adès, Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks und Münchener Philharmoniker, Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin with Robin Ticciati and Konzerthausorchester with Johanna Mallwitz, Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra with Lahav Shani, London Philharmonic and Philharmonia Orchestra with Paavo Järvi, Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra with Maxim Emelyanychev, Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra with Philippe Herreweghe, European Union Youth Orchestra with Gianandrea Noseda and Vasily Petrenko, Tonhalle-Orchester Zürich, Seoul Philharmonic and Osmo Vänskä, all the BBC Orchestras including with John Storgårds, Orchestre National de France with Cristian Măcelaru, NHK and Yomiuri Nippon symphony orchestras wit Kazuki Yamada, Washington’s National, Detroit and Seattle Symphony Orchestra, and Sydney and New Zealand Symphony orchestras with Donald Runnicles and the Australian Chamber Orchestra. He also regularly performs on period instruments with ensembles as Il Giardino Armonico, Orchestre des Champs-Elysées, B’Rock, Arcangelo, Academy of Ancient Music, Freiburger Barockorchester, Orchestra of 18th century and conductors as René Jacobs, Phillippe Herreweghe, Andrea Marcon, Giovanni Antonini and Jonathan Cohen.

As a conductor he has forged close partnerships with Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, Münchener Kammerorchester and Scottish Chamber Orchestra and begins this season his tenure as Artist in Association with Tapiola Sinfonietta.

As a chamber musician, Nicolas partners include Janine Jansen, Lawrence Power, Maxim Emelyanychev, Jean Rondeau, Thomas Dunford, and the Quatuor Ébène. He regularly performs at both Salzburg Mozart and Summer festivals, Verbier Festival, BBC Proms, Lucerne Festival, Edinburgh International Festival, Prague Spring Festival and Musikfest Bremen.

Joint appearances with composers such as Thomas Adès, Jörg Widmann, Fazıl Say and Sofia Gubaidulina consolidate his reputation as an outstanding interpreter of contemporary music. Wolfgang Rihm (Duo with Soprano 2021 ), Jörg Widmann (Albumblätter, “Schwester Tod”) Thomas Larcher (Duo with violin ) have written several pieces for him, while Nicolas has been commissioning concerti by Raphaël Merlin (2016), Helena Winkelman and Sebastian Fagerlund (2019), Anders Hillborg (2020), Fazil Say (2021) Marton Illés (2023), Erkki-Sven Tüür (2024) and Malika Kishino (2025). New concerti by Francesca Verunelli, Enno Poppe, Outi Tarkiainen, Olli Mustonen and Miroslav Srnka receive their premieres in the coming seasons. Liza Lim’s cello concerto A Sutured World has been composed for him in 2024 and been described to be destined to become a signature work of the cello repertoire. ( Limelight magazine ). It received the Grawemeyer Award 2026.

In 2012, Nicolas was chosen by Gidon Kremer to succeed him as the new artistic director of the Lockenhaus Chamber Music Festival and in 2015 by Ádám Fischer to become the new Artistic Director of the Haydn Philharmonie until 2022, within whom he regularly performed with at the Vienna Konzerthaus, Esterházy Festival and recently on tour in both China and Japan. Nicolas was Artistic Director of the Pfingstfestspiele Ittingen 2019 and 2023.

His most recent recordings for his Lockenhaus Festival garnered the BBC Music Magazine 2020 Chamber Award and Grammophone Award 2020. He received the BBC Music Magazine Concerto Award 2017 for his recording of CPE Bach Concertos on Hyperion with Arcangelo and Jonathan Cohen and the Edison Klassiek 2017 for his Recital Recording with Fazil Say on Warner Classics.

Altstaedt is a recipient of the Credit Suisse Award in 2010, Beethovenring Bonn 2015, Musikpreis der Stadt Duisburg 2018 and was a 2010–12 BBC New Generation Artist.

Olli Mustonen
is not only one of the most interesting musicians in Finland, he is also someone who creates surprises, intensities and amazements which are anything but commonplace in the music business. Süddeutsche Zeitung

Olli Mustonen is a pianist, composer and conductor. For him, it's all one thing: he is quite simply a musician. It therefore makes no sense for him to separate these functions - and so he excels in all three disciplines, playing an extraordinary role in today's musical world. With boundless energy and a creative and highly reflective approach to music, he is one of the few pianists whose signature style is instantly recognisable. Known for the expressiveness and intensity of his playing and his crystal-clear touch, his interpretations are characterised by the interplay between explosive outbursts and sensitive restraint.

During an illustrious career, Olli Mustonen has brought his extraordinary musical insight to many of the world's most significant orchestras, including the Berliner Philharmoniker, the New York and Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestras, the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, the Cleveland Orchestra, the Royal Concertgebouw Orkest, the Mariinsky Theatre Orchestra, the Orchestre de Paris, the Tonhalle Orchestra Zurich, and all the London orchestras. He has strong relationships with orchestras across Finland, including the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra, the Helsinki Philharmonic and Sinfonia Lahti, with whom he released an album of Rautavaara and Martinu's Third Piano Concertos conducted by Dalia Stasevska in 2023. At the beginning of 2023, he took over the position of Principal Guest Conductor with the Lapland Chamber Orchestra. As a recitalist, Olli Mustonen has appeared at Carnegie Hall, Symphony Center Chicago, Diaghilev Festival Perm, Dresden Festival, Lockenhaus Festival, New York Zankel Hall and Sydney Opera House. With Steven Isserlis, he has performed as a duo for more than thirty years. 2019 saw the release of their album of Russian works for cello and piano on the Hyperion label.

Olli Mustonen kicked off the 2025/26 season with Kremerata Baltica at Paliesius Manor in Lithuania and at the Helsinki Festival. He can be seen in all three roles – pianist, composer and conductor – in numerous concerts in his native Finland. In his three solo recitals at the Adelaide Festival, he focuses on Beethoven's piano sonatas; he will also perform chamber music at the Konvergencie Festival in Bratislava, the Big Little Music Festival at De Bijloke Gent, the String Quartet Biennale Amsterdam, the Stiftfestival in the Netherlands, the Norwegian FESTIVALTA, in Sydney, the Klavier-Festival Ruhr and in Denmark with flutist Janne Thomsen.

Recipient of the 2019 Hindemith Prize of the City of Hanau, Olli Mustonen’s life as a composer is at the heart of his piano playing and conducting. Frequently bringing his own works to the chamber music stage, the world premiere of his work Taivaanvalot (Heavenly Lights) for Tenor, Cello and Piano was performed at Het Muziekgebouw, Amsterdam by Olli Mustonen himself, alongside Ian Bostridge and Steven Isserlis. Additional performances took place at London’s Wigmore Hall and in Hong Kong. His string sextet, commissioned by the Beethovenfest Bonn, was premiered there in 2020. In 2022, Apotheosis, in memoriam Pablo Casals was premiered at the opening gala of the Casals Forum in Kronberg and the Sinfonia No. 3 Taivaanvalot with the Turku Philharmonic and tenor soloist Ian Bostridge, the latter was published in 2023 by Ondine together with his 2nd Symphony. The flute concerto Sadunkertoja (Storyteller) was premiered by Janne Thomsen and the PKF Prague Philharmonia under Olli Mustonen at the Concentus Moraviae Festival in the Czech Republic; the Finnish premiere will take place with the Jyväskylä Sinfonia in November 2025. His violin concerto was premiered in Finland by Elina Vähälä and the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra under Nicholas Collon on 6 December 2024, Finland's Independence Day.

Born in Helsinki, Olli Mustonen began his studies in piano, harpsichord, and composition at the age of five. Initially learning with Ralf Gothoni, he subsequently studied piano with Eero Heinonen and composition with Einojuhani Rautavaara.

Booklet für Heavenly Lights