Petri Kumela, named Finland's most interesting guitarist, continues his popular series of solo guitar concerts at the Helsinki Music Centre. Once again, the programme is far from conventional.

The concert also marks the release of Kumela's new album "Tempered Guitar" (Alba Records), featuring music by Jacquet de La Guerre, Bach, Tiensuu and Hilli performed on a microtonal guitar.

The first half of the concert is devoted to Baroque music, approached from two very different angles.

Kumela has arranged for guitar the first keyboard suite by the French early Baroque composer Élisabeth Jacquet de La Guerre (1665-1729). This relatively little-known, multi-movement work is followed by one of the late Baroque's best-known single-movement masterpieces, Johann Sebastian Bach's (1685-1750) Chaconne, BWV 1004, originally written for violin but for nearly a century also a staple of the classical guitar repertoire.

The second half of the concert is filled by a brand-new, large-scale work, the premiere of a forthcoming signature piece: composer Lauri Supponen's (b. 1988) Millefleurz for guitar, electronics, video and sofa. Supponen is one of our most original and endearing composers. Here is how he describes the work himself:

Inspired by medieval millefleur patterns, Millefleurz is a surrealist parade for six guitar strings, a worn-out sofa, animals of inconsistent size, and all the flowers that are allowed to bloom.

Kumela performs all the works on a microtonal classical guitar, which allows for historical and other non-equal-tempered tuning systems.

Programme:

Élisabeth Jacquet de La Guerre (1665-1729): Suite I en ré mineur

Prélude
Allemande
Courante 1
Courante 2
Sarabande
Gigue
Cannaris
Chaconne L’Inconstante

Menuet

Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750): Ciaccona, BWV 1004

-interval-

Lauri Supponen (*1988): Millefleurz - a textile sample book for microtonal guitar and electronics

Petri Kumela, guitar