Fall / Herbst – Original & Art / Kunst

Hundreds and thousands of migrating birds gather each year in September on the large fields of Viikki Bay in Helsinki, close to where I live. Helsingin Sanomat, the main Newspaper in Finland, took a video of a tremendous cloud of Canada-Geese a few hours ago.

Sibelius in der Holzkiste

Endlich habe ich es geschafft, ein Konzert im berühmten Sibelius Saal in Lahti zu hören. Schon im Februar hatten wir die Karten gekauft, im April war das Konzert bereits ausverkauft: BBC Orchester aus London, Okko Kamu der Dirigent, Sergei Malov als Solist. Gespielt wurde das Violinkonzert und die 2. Symphonie von Jean Sibelius, als Zugabe…

Sibelius Violin Concerto

I had the great pleasure today to listen to  the Violin concerto of Jean Sibelius in the same premises where it was performed the first time! The city hall of Helsinki, then still Seurahuone Hotel, features an impressive celebration hall and has hosted many balls, concerts and events since the 19th century till today. The…

Finnish Voices

It’s dark again. This means: you need inner power. I found this video of a concert of Naiskuoro Timotei, a Finnish Women’s choir. They sing  traditional music and wear traditional costumes of their area. I think the power they present is very impressive. The quality of the recording is not so great, but I hope…

Haitari music

Summer is inevitably also coming to Finland and with it comes music festivals all over the country. The Finnish music scene is very diverse. Haitari, the accordion or rather the Russian bayan-type version of it, is found regularly in Finnish Folk music. Here are five different musicians with very different performances. I like them all.…

What is Jopo?

Jopo is a Finnish bicycle brand that was launched in 1965 and is going strong still today. The name is the abbreviation for “jokainen polkupyörä”, basically saying “a bicycle for everybody”. Eero Helkamalla had the dream of designing a bike that everybody could drive, irrespective of age, size, sex or dimension of wallet. And irrespective…

Itsenäisyyspäivä

Okay, this is too late. Unfortunately I was travelling on 6.12. when Finland celebrates independence day. But as independence doesn’t end on that day, I’ll post this music piece today. Composer is, of course, Jean Sibelius, it’s called, of course, Finlandia. During the last years of Finland being a part of Russia, this music was…

Double or half?

I just realized with full force that I do have now double citizenship.   Something I never intended nor expected to happen in my life. Or am I half German and half Finn now? At least I don’t feel anymore like a real German, but I am not a Finn, either, and never will be. Although,…