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- Joel Järventausta
Sunfall (2020)
- Edition Wilhelm Hansen Copenhagen (World)
Commissioned for the London Symphony Orchestra through the LSO Discovery Panufnik Composers Scheme, generously supported by Lady Hamlyn and the Helen Hamlyn Trust
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- 17 min
Programme Note
Sunfall took inspiration from several sources. The first was the sunset scene of Thomas Moran’s 1875 painting Fiercely the Red Sun Descending/Burned His Way Along the Heavens. The vivid colours of the sky juxtaposed with the darker tones below create a deeply dramatic seascape. During composition, I also read Cormac McCarthy’s classic, Blood Meridian, in which the sun plays an important part illuminating the landscapes of the story. I attempted to translate some of this imagery into music in my piece. Zoomed in, the sun exhibits danger and heat, reflected in the more dramatic passages of my work; zoomed out it exhibits peace, light and beauty, reflected in the more still and melodic passages. The majority of the piece was written in the countryside, during the lockdown period of 2020, where I was accompanied by the setting sun - not unlike the one depicted in Moran’s painting - many a night of composing. Perhaps this adds yet another layer of meaning behind the title of the work.
Joel Järventausta
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Reviews
Joel Järventausta emerged as a strong composer with Sunfall, which was heard in its Finnish premiere [...] it is interesting how he uses a fairly simple compositional "skeleton" with minor tonalitites and all kinds of "disturbing" elements added in the form of rhythmic accents and textures.
Järventausta's approach to writing for orchestra is powerful in a way that is reminiscent of John Williams, although he strikes many different tones in the work.
Sunfall sounds more like a James Bond film than an orchestral work, but it proved an apt title for Joel Jarventausta’s concert opener, the first of three new pieces showcased in this LSO Futures concert, and one that offered more than I had bargained for. The young Finn, in his mid-twenties, is clearly a composer who knows how to turn colour into sound.
Truly gripping was Sunfall by Joel Järventausta, born in 1995. The young Finn’s narration is extremely sonorous and he uses the possibilities of the orchestra for unexpected effects – right up to the end, when the clarinettists speak and the violin desks pluck high, stifled pizzicato notes.
His Sunfall, inspired by a vivid 19th-century painting of a sunset, and by Cormac McCarthy’s novel Blood Meridian, seemed an exceptionally assured piece of orchestral writing. It’s a fiercely concentrated, 10-minute tone poem, in which violent outbursts of brass alternate with more consoling instrumental lines, and uneasy passages of stasis.
More Info
- FRSO Festival with Hans Abrahamsen and Joel Järventausta
- 7th November 2023
- This year’s Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra Festival centers on British composer and conductor Sir George Benjamin. Curated by him, the program includes Hans Abrahamsen and Joel Järventausta.
