Edward Elgar had not yet achieved major success as a composer in the 1890s. However, alongside teaching and conducting amateur orchestras, he composed works such as Serenade for Strings E minor Op. 20, which he completed in March 1892 as a gift for his wife on their third wedding anniversary. An early version of the serenade was probably performed as early as 1888 under the title Three Sketches for Strings. An early version of the serenade was probably performed as early as 1888 under the title Three Sketches for Strings. Its movements were Spring Song, Elegy, and Finale, but the manuscript has since been lost.

Serenade for string orchestra was not performed publicly until 1896 in Belgium and had its British premiere in 1899. Since then, it has gradually become one of the composer’s most beloved works. The three-part, 12-minute work flows captivatingly and effortlessly.

In the first movement, Allegro piacevole (Pleasantly fast), one can imagine spring bursting into bloom to the fresh rhythm of 6/8. The slower Larghetto movement offers one of Elgar’s finest melodies, as the violins burst into bloom after a short introduction. The finale swings cheerfully and returns to the theme of the first movement before gently closing. The composer was clearly pleased with his work and wrote in a letter about its three harmonious movements: “I like ’em (the first thing I ever did)”.

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart often made his music sound effortless and light, but he admired the contrapuntal skills of old masters such as J.S. Bach. A fugue for two pianos in the passionate Sturm und Drang style has survived from 1783, which Mozart arranged for strings five years later and added a dramatic slow introduction to. The work has no known commissioner, but music publisher F.A. Hoffmeister published the score immediately.

Adagio and Fugue C minor (K. 546) does not immediately sound like a typical Mozart work, but his interest in composing polyphonic musical lines was evident in many of his works from that period. The fugue theme with its variations and multiple overlaps represents a technique that Mozart honed to perfection, culminating in the famous finale of the Jupiter Symphony.

Just as Mozart took inspiration from previous generations, so too did future generations take inspiration from him. Ludwig van Beethoven’s estate contains a carefully copied version of Mozart’s fugue in C minor, whose virtuosity he clearly admired and carried forward into his own great fugues.

Samuel Barber composed his only string quartet in 1935–36. He immediately sensed the potential of the slow movement, which steadily ascends with calm steps, and arranged it for string orchestra under the title Adagio for Strings. Arturo Toscanini conducted the premiere in 1938, after which it established itself as a classic of American art music.

Adagio has been played at the funerals of both Albert Einstein and Grace Kelly, and it has become established as funeral music after events that have shocked the world. Three decades after the composition was written, in 1967 Barber added lyrics from the Latin Agnus Dei mass text and arranged it for mixed choir. In September 2021, in memory of the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center two decades ago, the closing concert of the London Proms festival also featured an arrangement combining the original string orchestra work Agnus Dei with lyrics.

Adagio builds slowly, weaving its simple melody line like a prayer rope. The weight of emotion builds to a climactic chord in the upper register, with the final chords settling into silence as the opening is repeated. The limitations of musical resources become a strength, channeling powerful emotions in a universal, human way that transcends cultural boundaries.

Lauri Mäntysaari

A presentation of Olli Kortekangas’ Requiem will be coming soon.

Olli Kortekangas (b. in Turku in 1955) studied composition under Einojuhani Rautavaara and Eero Hämeenniemi at the Sibelius Academy from 1974 to 1981 and continued his studies under Dieter Schnebel in West Berlin. In the fall of 1985, he studied under Roger Reynolds in San Diego. Kortekangas has worked as a teacher at the Espoo Music Institute, the Sibelius Academy, and the Theater Academy, as well as in master classes in Finland and abroad. From 1997 to 2007, Kortekangas served as the Oulu Symphony Orchestra’s composer-in-residence.

Olli Kortekangas’ catalog of works includes approximately 160 compositions, ranging from miniatures to orchestral works and operas. He has always been particularly interested in the human voice, vocal music, and musical theater. His major works include numerous choral works and fourteen operas, such as Grand Hotel (1985), Messenius and Lucia (2005), Isän tyttö (2007), Oma vika (2015), Veljeni vartija (2017), Ende und Beginn (2021), and Isfåglarna (2023). Kortekangas’ career also includes a wealth of instrumental music, including concertos, chamber music and solo works, and his most recent interest is in compositions for period instruments.

Kortekangas has composed commissioned works for many European countries as well as the United States, Canada, Japan, and Australia. The most significant foreign premieres in recent years have been the oratorio Seven Songs for Planet Earth (2011), premiered in Washington, Migrations for mezzo-soprano, male choir and orchestra (2014), commissioned by the Minnesota Orchestra, and the Estonian-Finnish collaboration Piir (2024). Notable Finnish premieres include the Clarinet Concerto (2014), commissioned by the Oulu Symphony Orchestra, the song cycle Songs of Meena (2020), commissioned by the Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra, and the Guitar Concerto (2024), commissioned by the Saimaa Sinfonietta. Kortekangas is currently working on an international dance theater production on the Etruscans, which will premiere in Oslo in 2027.

Olli Kortekangas has an extensive output of organ music, including a concerto, four sonatas, and numerous smaller works for both church and concert use. He has also composed several large-scale sacred works. De virtute in virtutem – Songs of a Pilgrim was premiered at the Naantali Music Festival in 2011, and the large-scale VIA oratorio in 2017. In the summer of 2019, the church opera Elämänkuvat (Images of Life) premiered in the old church of Isokyrö. The church opera Ende und Beginn, which premiered in Uusikaupunki in 2021, has since been performed in various parts of Finland, and in the summer of 2024 it premiered in Tallinn, Estonia. “Unacknowledged Vesper Music” Vähän ennen yötä for three voices and organ was premiered in 2023, and a version for large choir and organ in 2025.

Olli Kortekangas has received, among other things, the Prix Italia special prize, the Salzburg City Opera Prize, the Teosto Prize, the Lutheran Culture Foundation Recognition Prize, and the 2015 Art Music Composer Prize awarded by the Finnish Music Publishers Association. Other honors include the Espoo Medal and the selection as the Official Unikeko of the Kingdom in Naantali in 2011. In 2022, the opera Ende und Beginn was awarded the Arkkipooki Certificate of Honor by the Archdiocese of Turku.

Kortekangas is a founding member of the renowned contemporary music association Korvat auki ry. His numerous organizational and expert roles over the years include membership in the boards of the Finnish Composers’ Association, the Association of Church Music Composers, and Teosto, the board of the Paulo Foundation, the State Music Committee, and the Finnish-language supplement working group for the hymnal. From 2023 to 2025, Kortekangas served as an expert for the Nordic Culture Fund.

Olli Kortekangas lives and works in Helsinki and Rymättylä, Naantali.