Farewell, Friends

One hundred years ago, in January 1926, the friendship between three artists came to an end. At the same time, one of the most famous love triangles – the complex relationship between poets Eino Leino and L. Onerva and composer Leevi Madetoja, which had lasted for nearly two decades – also came to a close. The YL Male Voice Choir and choir director Pasi Hyökki bring to the Turku Music Festival a moving and poetic concert program based on this relationship, titled Farewell, Friends.

Leino and Onerva had met as early as the beginning of the 20th century, but their relationship deepened into love around 1908 when Leino moved away from his first wife. A couple of years later, Onerva met Madetoja while he was composing music for Leino’s plays. Madetoja and Onerva were married in 1913, but Leino remained part of the trio until his death.

The concert program consists exclusively of works set to poems by Eino Leino and L. Onerva, nearly all of which were composed during Leino’s lifetime. They are also arranged, for the most part, in chronological order. This allows us to travel back in time and follow – or at least imagine – the progression of moods through the medium of art. The majority of the compositions are by Leevi Madetoja, which is certainly no coincidence.

The evening’s music is full of sensitivity, longing, and intense emotion. The short, concise works form a flowing whole in which love, longing, and the transience of life run parallel. Choral singing brings a new dimension to the poems: the words come to life as a polyphonic and breathing whole. The atmosphere is intimate yet powerful, like a glimpse into the spiritual landscape of a bygone era.

Farewell, Friends is a concert in which music and poetry tell a story of friendship, love, and loss.