This year the annual festival runs between 16 August and 1 September, bringing a host of colourful events to liven up the darkening late summer nights.
From the opening evening onwards, Helsinki folk can prick their ears to the festival’s Sounding City series, which weaves aural artworks into the capital’s environment. The festival’s opening fanfare will be played by a foghorn orchestra on Market Square at 19.30. Answering the call of the 90 foghorns, British Luke Jerram’s Sky Orchestra will sound from a fleet of hot air balloons gliding through the skies to Market Square.
The Sounding City continues on the Night of the Arts – celebrated for the 25th time on Thursday 22 August – when hundreds of giant wind instruments play at the waterfront in Pierre Sauvageot’s Harmonic Fields, and Night Musicrings from Helsinki’s towers.
Huvila re-pitched
Less ethereal sounds are also packed into the festival, which features concerts and performances over a wide range of musical genres. The Huvila Festival Tent designed by architect Roy Mänttäri at Töölönlahti is once again home to a host of popular and world music acts. Kicking off the Huvila season on Friday is Anthony Joseph & The Spasm Band. Trinidad-born, London-based Anthony Joseph mixes his potent lyrics with a fusion of musical influences including calypso, reggae, rock, afrobeat and jazz.
A few nights later Yoko Ono and Thurston Moore from Sonic Youth bring their blend of art rock to the tent in one of the most anticipated international acts of the festival.
Left-field offerings
On the classical side, fellow New Yorker Philip Glass is this year’s special focus artist. The minimalist composer has created operas, ballets, orchestral and chamber music, as well as soundtracks for over 100 films by heavyweights like Martin Scorsese, Woody Allen and documentary auteur Errol Morris. Helsinki Festival features a piano recital by Glass himself, a retrospective concert by the Philip Glass ensemble and a live film concert of Godfrey Reggio’s Koyaaniqatsi -- featuring one of Glass' most famous scores -- at the Music House.
The National Audiovisual Archive's Orion cinema will also be showing a series of films with Glass’ music, running up until September 1. The composer will be present for a Q&A for the first of these, The Thin Blue Line on Sunday 18 August.
Among the more left-field offerings is the Reddress series, in which artists don a giant red dress designed by Finland-based Aamu Song. In ten performances curated by violinist Pekka Kuusisto, the audience snuggles up in pockets of the dress in the surrounds of the Cable Factory’s industrial boiler room to enjoy the spectacle. Not all the performances are musical -- science populariser Esko Valtaoja, for instance, will slip into the red gown to lecture on cosmology. The Reddress performances have been popular further afield also – for instance, Emma Salokoski sang in the dress in London.
Contemporary circus magic
With all of this in store and more, contemporary circus luminary James Thiérrée took an early start on Thursday evening with his solo stage piece "Raoul". Combining circus, acrobatics, dance, pantomime, theatre and music, "Raoul" showcased Thiérrée’s mastery of all these, bringing the Finnish National Opera audience to their feet in a thundering extended standing ovation. In the first Helsinki Festival to which the National Opera has lent its big stage, Thiérrée held the audience’s attention for one and a half hours pretty much single-handedly with his surreal play, which only featured a couple of extras posing as his body double and livening up props.
The 39-year-old performer has been on stage since he was four, travelling around Europe and the U.S. in his parents’ circus until the age of 20.
"I learnt that everything is permitted. One can find new secrets on stage and in theatre. This gave me the feeling of being an explorer, which remains with me strongly," Thiérrée reflected on what his upbringing brought him.
Considering his ancestry, a stage life is hardly surprising: no less an icon than Charlie Chaplin is Thiérrée’s grandfather. However, wanting to carve out his own artistic identity, Thiérrée refuses to talk about his mother Victoria Chaplin’s father.
Though Thiérrée visited the Helsinki Festival also back in 2005, this is the first time he brings "Raoul" to Finland, which was first premiered in France some four years ago. Playing at the Barbican in London for 12 consecutive evenings, it has since become a modern classic.
Approaching 40, the performer is finding the tough, physical show demanding. So much so, that in his next piece he is directing a group of dancers, without joining them on stage himself. Thiérrée leads his own theatre company Compagnie du Hanneton, and is also known as a film actor in France.
