1001 NIGHT An oriental fantastic play by Sami Keski-Vähälä in two acts. Stage directing: Claude Naville. Music: Herman Rechberger. The opening night at the Teatteri Pieni Suomi (Little Finland) took place on 3rd october 1998 at 6.30 PM. The play was performed until December the same year, about 30 times and performances continued in spring 1999. SHIP OF FOOLS A revised version of the work "Nave dei Pazzi" (That's the original title in Italian) which had is first performance in Belgrade 1997 under Kari Tikka, was finally played in Finland. The "SHIP" sailed under the "navigation" of Leif Segerstam, who conducted the Helsinki Philharmonic orchestra on the 21st october 1999 in the Finlandia Hall. LA ROTA performed in the Rockchurch Taivalahti during the Musica Nova Festival Helsinki, 21st February 2000 AMAZONAS As a result of a workshop with students from the Peltola school, Amazonas was born. The piece has three parts (Rainforest I, Samba do vo, Rainforest II) and is scored for 6 flutes, oboe, 2 clarinets, 4 alto-saxophones, 2 trumpets, piano, 6 percussionists, 8 violins, double bass & rainforest background tape. The first performance took place 9.10. 1999 in the Almi-hall at the Finnish National Opera. The composition was a commission by the Accociation of Finnish School Music Teachers for its 90th anniversary. OPERA 2000 - NUNC ET SEMPER Herman Rechberger has just finished his part of the opera-trilogy "The Age of Dreams" (click for more information), for the Savonlinna Opera Festival 2000. The title of the trilogy's opening is ...nunc et semper... and the libretto is written by Paavo Rintala. The Trilogy is a unic project by three Finnish composers, Herman Rechberger, Olli Kortekangas and Kalevi Aho....nunc et semper... is scored for large orchestra, soloists and large mixed choir. The libretto is multilingual (Finnish, French, Latin, Greek, Polish, Jiddish and German). The first part of the trilogy "The Age Of Dreams" (Aika ja Uni) was performed in July at the Savonlinna Operafestival 2000 four times. Three more performances could be seen at the Festival 2001. SKAB'MÂ The Mikkeli Orchestra played the string version of Skab'mâ (original score for chamber orchestra 1111/1 +strings) 0n october 16th 2000 in the Mikkeli Concert Hall ISME 2000 The Oulainen Youth Choir is representing Finland at the Congress of the International Society for Musical Education in Edmonton, Canada in July 2000. Herman Rechberger has written and designed a workshop project for this festival. SOUND!RING! is designed for 20-25 vocalists and auxiliar instruments. The workshop's task is to improve the singers skills for spontaneous sound invention, communication, sense of timing and microtonal pitches. SOUND!RING! is inspired by the making of SAMPO from the Finnish epos Kalevala. The first performance took place by the Oulainen Youth Choir. This choir was among the first in Finland, which performed regularely Finnish and International contemporary choir music. Since it's foundation the conductor has been Tapani Tirilä. During almost 25 years Rechberger has been visiting this choir, giving workshops and composing a number of works for it. NOITASAPATTI (BLACK SABBATH) A testversion of this school opera (see Hot News) was performed on the 29th of September 2000 at 12.00 clock in the National Opera's Rehearsel Hall and at 17.00 clock in the Helsingin Yhtenäiskoulu Käpylä. 19 more performances took place in various schools of Helsinki, Tampere and Savonlinna in Spring 2001 and several performances for 2002. The opera is still very popular. Unil to this date (autumn 2005) over 60 performances in schools throughout Finland. HAGIA IKÓN The new work is based on Byzantine chant and written for the famous Finnish Accordion Trio FRATRES. It was performed for the first time in Austria (Krems) at the end of June 2001. FROM AUSTRIA TO VANTAA WITH LOVE Landler (the dialect word for Ländler) is a commission from the Vantaa POPS Orchestra for the 650-year festivities of the foundation of the City of Vantaa. The work is based on Austrian fiddle music and shows the rich rhythmic aspects archieved by different superposition of Landler performance styles. The first performance took place at the Martinus Hall on May 14th 2000. NEFES First performance 28.11.2003 in the Concert Hall in Jyväskylä. 5 Canciones (as a version for baritone and piano) first performance 15.07.2003 in the Concert Hall in Savonlinna Jaakko Kortekangas and the pianist Matti Paananen 14! First performance 14.11.2003 at the Bruckner Hall in Linz/Austria. Denis-Russel Davies conducted the Bruckner-Orchestra of Linz. The work was a commission from the LIVA for the opening of the Bruckner Festival in Linz Alovlar (ehtirasli) First performance 7.07.2003 in the Main Cathedral in Uusikaupunki (Crusell-Festival). The solopart was played by Mikko Raasakka. Osmo Väskä conducted the Sinfonia Lahti. ...à roue in Australia The Finnish composer and viola player will give a first performance of Rechberger's solo piece "....à roue" on 3rd July 2007 at The 35th International Viola Congress, Adelaide, South Australia, University of Adelaide. Later this year the work will be also performed in Finland. LA PIEDRA DE DON First performance 26.02.2008 in the Concert Hall of the Helsinki Conservatory. HI! BAROCK-ensemble, conductor Charles Barbier | 
