December 2017
Finnish music from around 1800 on fortepiano and violin
My contribution to the celebrations of the 100 years of Finnish independence: a concert of Finnish music from around 1800 on fortepiano and violin, on 7 December in The Hague (the day after Finland's 100th independence day!). On the program, two fine piano sonatas by C.L. Lithander, a Rondo by his brother Fredrik Lithander, variations on a Finnish folk song by G.J. Vogler, and two beautiful violin sonatas by Thomas Byström. I will be playing my original 1830s Viennese fortepiano, and in the Byström sonatas I will be joined by the wonderful Tomoe Badiarova on violin. So if you're ready to explore some exciting repertoire from the far North that you've never heard before, or also if you're just curious to hear my historic fortepiano for the first time, this is your chance!
The concert is part of the Musica Antica da Camera concert series. More information here.
7 December 2017 at 20.15
Finnish Classical music for fortepiano and violin
Thomas Byström: 2 sonatas for fortepiano and violin; Carl Ludvig Lithander: Piano sonatas in C major and F sharp minor;
Fredrik Lithander: Rondo ”La jouissance”; Georg Joseph Vogler: Air finnois
Ere Lievonen (fortepiano) and Tomoe Badiarova (violin)
Sociëteit De Vereeniging, Kazernestraat 38b, The Hague
March 2017
New CD release!
A new recording of violin sonatas by Johann Georg Pisendel (1687–1755) has been released on the Brilliant Classics label.
The CD contains three sonatas for violin and basso continuo and one solo violin sonata, featuring Tomasz Plusa as the soloist
on Baroque violin. In between these sonatas, there are also some lute solos by Silvius Leopold Weiss (1686–1750),
performed on theorbo by Earl Christy. The basso continuo group in these highly demanding sonatas is completed by
Robert Smith (cello) and Ere Lievonen (harpsichord).
Johann Georg Pisendel: Violin Sonatas
Tomasz Aleksander Plusa (violin), Robert Smith (cello), Earl Christy (lute, theorbo), Ere Lievonen (harpsichord)
Brilliant Classics 95432
May 2014
Microtonal organ concert on video
On 29 March 2014, at the Helsinki MicroFest 2014 festival, Ere Lievonen and Susanne Kujala played a unique microtonal organ concert, with music for 31-tone organ performed by two and four hands. You can now watch the recording of this concert at the Sibelius Academy website. Note that the full-length video recording will be available only for a limited period of time.
Helsinki MicroFest 2014 – Microtonal organ concert
Susanne Kujala and Ere Lievonen (digital 31-tone organ), Mikko Perkola (viola da gamba)
Daniel Caux, Sebastian Dumitrescu, Ivan Wyschnegradsky, Franz Liszt (arr. Joachim F.W. Schneider / Ere Lievonen),
Juhani Nuorvala, Jukka Tiensuu, Ere Lievonen, Adriaan Fokker, Anton de Beer, Joachim F.W. Schneider
October 2011
Hexnut – Wrench on Dutch Radio 4
Wrench is the newest project by ensemble Hexnut, combining photographs of Edward Burtynsky with new music inspired by them. The Dutch Radio 4 recorded the performance that took place in Utrecht on 7 September 2011, as part of the Gaudeamus Music Week, with works by Jan-Bas Bollen, David Dramm, Anthony Fiumara, Ned McGowan, Mayke Nas and Seung-Ah Oh. The concert is broadcast on Thursday evening, 20 October 2011, on Radio 4. It can also be listened to afterwards on the Radio 4 website.
August 2011
Ensemble Ambrosius live recording released on CD
The concert by Ensemble
Ambrosius on 10 August 2010 in Hamburg, Germany, is
now available on CD. The concert, recorded in the
St. Katharinen church, included music by Frank Zappa,
György Ligeti and Olli Virtaperko, and featured Napoleon
Murphy Brock as a special guest!
Ensemble Ambrosius featuring Napoleon Murphy Brock
Zappa spielt für Bach
Music by Frank Zappa, György Ligeti, Erik Satie and Olli Virtaperko
Stiftung Johann Sebastian S-J-S-Edition Nr. 5
July 2011
New website and email address
My website has now moved to the present new location (www.erelievonen.eu). My new email address can be found on the Contact information page.
My apologies for the long hiatus in updating the old website.
Details of all the events that did not appear on the old Agenda page have now been included on the
Past performances page.
July 2011
Ensemble Ambrosius on the Finnish radio
The concert that Ensemble Ambrosius played on 10 August 2010 in Hamburg, Germany, will be broadcast by the Finnish Broadcasting Company on the YLE Radio 1 channel on Thursday, 28 July 2011, at 19.03. The concert, with music by Frank Zappa, György Ligeti and Olli Virtaperko, was recorded in the St. Katharinen church in Hamburg, and featured Napoleon Murphy Brock as a special guest. The concert can also be listened to afterwards on the Yle Areena website. A CD recording of the same concert will be released soon.
June 2011
Master of Music degree on fortepiano
On 8 June 2011, Ere Lievonen played, with a lot of success, his final examination concert for the Master of Music degree on fortepiano (historical pianos) at the Early Music department of the Royal Conservatoire in The Hague.
The concert program included two concertos or concerto-like works: W. A. Mozart’s famous Concerto in D minor KV 466 (with the orchestral part arranged for string quartet by Mozart’s contemporary Peter Lichtenthal), and Carl Czerny’s Grand Variations on ”Gott erhalte Franz den Kaiser” (in Czerny’s own string quartet version). The chamber music of Carl Czerny was the main topic of Ere’s research project during the Master studies.
The excellent string players who accompanied the entire program were Aira Maria Lehtipuu and Tomoe Mihara (violins), Zdenka Procházková (viola) and Stephanie Hunt (cello). Many thanks to them! Special thanks are due to professor Bart van Oort, for the excellent guidance during the entire study time!
(click the image to enlarge)
November 2010
Lieder by Franz Schubert and his contemporaries on the radio
The concert in the Dr Anton Philipszaal in The Hague on Sunday, 7 November 2010, with songs by Franz Schubert and his contemporaries, was recorded and broadcast live by Radio West of The Hague. Performers in the concert were singers and fortepiano students at the Royal Conservatory of The Hague. Ellen Valkenburg (soprano) and Ere Lievonen (fortepiano) were one of the duos, performing songs by Franz Schubert and Felix Mendelssohn. The concert can also be listened to via internet at the website of Radio West (direct link to the sound file).
October 2010
Mythbusting in concert!
Myths Revisited is a new composition by Ere Lievonen, written for the ensemble Hexnut. It is inspired by the popular TV science show Mythbusters. In the TV show, they test the truth value behind modern myths and beliefs. In the composition Myths Revisited, several myths from the show are being put to the test again, but this time using only musical means!
The work will be premiered by Hexnut as part of the Muziek Biënnale Niederrhein 2010, and this fits perfectly the theme of the festival: ”Myths and legends”! The first performance is on 15 October 2010 in Nijmegen, and a second performance will take place in Arnhem on 22 October 2010.
March 2010
New publication by Ere Editions
The first score by Ere Editions is out!
Ferdinand Ries: Quintet in G minor op. 142
for piano, harp, violin, viola and violoncello (or two pianos, violin, viola and violoncello) (1814)
(First edition in score)
See sample pages
Ere Editions aims to publish, in modern critical editions, interesting but lesser known 18th and 19th century music for which no modern edition, or no good modern edition is currently available.
Ere Editions will be launched with the publication of Ferdinand Ries’ Quintet in G minor op. 142. This will happen on the occasion of the International Harp Competition and Festival in Utrecht. The quintet will be performed by the Van Swieten Society on period instruments in a lunch concert on Friday 26 March 2010 at 12.30 in Vredenburg Leeuwenbergh.
The score and parts can be ordered through me on the spot that day, or by email.
November 2009
Première of Gradus Jacobii
Recorder virtuoso Erik Bosgraaf will play the first performance of Ere Lievonen’s new solo recorder piece Gradus Jacobii, inspired by the recorder music of Jacob van Eyck and the Dom tower of Utrecht. The performance will take place in Tilburg on 1 December 2009, at a concert organized by De Link, featuring the duo Erik Bosgraaf (recorders) & Izhar Elias (guitar).
September 2009
The 31-tone ’Fokker’ organ
Ere Lievonen has been appointed organist of the microtonal ’Fokker’ organ in Amsterdam. The organ, owned by the Huygens-Fokker Foundation (Centre for Microtonal Music), has recently been restored and re-erected in the BAM hall of the Muziekgebouw aan ’t IJ in Amsterdam. This unique instrument, originally built in 1950 according to the plans of Prof. Adriaan Daniël Fokker, is tuned in 31-tone equal temperament. It has two manuals and pedal, and all the keyboards have 31 keys per octave.
The first public concert on the newly restored organ will be given by Ere Lievonen on Sunday, 11 October 2009, at 11.00. The program will include works from the existing repertory of pieces composed since 1950 especially for this instrument, as well as 17th-century music in meantone temperament (the 31-tone temperament sounds virtually identical to the historical meantone temperament). Also on the program will be a new work by Danny de Graan, which for the first time utilizes the newly implemented possibility of controlling the organ with a computer via MIDI.
This is the first concert in a series of six concerts this season on the Fokker organ. More information on the Fokker organ and other microtonality-related matters can be found on the website of the Huygens-Fokker Foundation.
There will also be a presentation of the Fokker organ during the Gaudeamus Music Week, on Saturday, 12 September 2009 at 16.00. This presentation is especially aimed at composers, and will demonstrate the different musical and technical possibilities of the organ.
September 2009
Master studies of fortepiano
Last May, Ere Lievonen succesfully passed his Bachelor examination in fortepiano playing at the Royal Conservatoire in The Hague, and thus added yet another instrument to his diploma collection. He was subsequently accepted to continue his fortepiano studies for a Master’s Degree at the same institution and with the same teacher, Bart van Oort.
For his Master research, he will concentrate on a subject that has hitherto hardly been investigated at all: the chamber music of Carl Czerny (1791–1857). It is little known that this composer, mainly notorious for his countless etudes for piano and other light-weight piano pieces, also wrote a substantial number of sonatas and chamber music of very high quality. Ere Lievonen plans to survey this music, and bring to performance some great works whose public appreciation is long overdue.
August 2008
New audio files!
My Audio page now contains mp3 files of some of my compositions. Download and listen!
May 2007
New CD and DVD releases
• The debut CD of the new music ensemble Hexnut (Susanna Borsch, recorders; Ned McGowan, flute/contrabass flute; Gijs Levelt, trumpet; Ere Lievonen, piano/prepared piano/harpsichord; Stephie Büttrich, voice) has been released on the Karnatic Lab Records label (KLR 013). The official CD release concert took place in the Muziekgebouw aan ’t IJ, Amsterdam, on 14 April 2007.
• A new CD/DVD set by Duo Bosgraaf & Elias (Erik Bosgraaf, recorders, and Izhar Elias, guitars), titled ”Big Eye – movies & music”, has been released on the Phenom label (PH0713). This recording includes, among other audio and video tracks, Pygmies in Space by Ere Lievonen, used as music to the short film Sweet Paradise by Paul and Menno de Nooijer.
• Karnatic Lab Records has released a CD compilation of some of the best recordings of the late Jahnavi Jayaprakash, a legendary Carnatic singer/composer from Bangalore, India. This CD, commemorating the fifth anniversary of her death, and for which the record label had reserved their first catalogue number (KLR 001), is entitled ”Legacy”, and it includes live recordings of classical works of Carnatic music as well as some of her own, partly quite experimental, compositions. I have had the honour of being involved in the production of this CD, and have also contributed, among many other people, a tribute text to the accompanying booklet.
April 2007
Niko Kumpuvaara premièred Marcia macabra
The Finnish accordionist Niko Kumpuvaara took part in the Gaudeamus Interpreters Competition for performers of contemporary music in Amsterdam, 16–22 April 2007. In the final round of the competition, on 22 April in the Muziekgebouw aan ’t IJ, he brilliantly played the world première of my new solo accordion piece Marcia macabra, which was commissioned by him. He was awarded the third prize in the competition. Congratulations!
February 2007
Première of Toccata in C
The première of Toccata in C for organ (op. 17, 2006) will be played by Susanne Kujala on 20 February 2007 on the organ of the Finlandia Hall in Helsinki, as part of her debut concert program.