Sibbe Live!: With Bass Clarinet from Finland 

18.03.2026 19:00 – 20:00

Standard price 20€ +order fee (from 1,50 € + 0,65 % of the order)

Students/pensioners/children 15€ +order fee (from 1,50 € + 0,65 % of the order)

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Mikko Raasakka, bass clarinet, Antti Vahtola, piano and voice 

Kirmo Lintinen – Timo Hietala – Jean Sibelius – Adina Dumitrescu – Ferrucio Busoni 

Our concert presents music composed in Finland for the bass clarinet – a young yet astonishingly versatile solo instrument. Sibelius was the first Finnish composer to use it in his works: the bass clarinet solo in the Kullervo Symphony appears at the moment when Kullervo asks his sword whether it is ready “to drink tainted blood.” Our arrangement of the Romance in D-flat major is our vision of what an entire bass clarinet piece composed by Sibelius might have sounded like.

The world premiere of the concert is a duo for clarinetist and singing pianist by the Tampere-based composer Adina Dumitrescu. The piece makes full use of pianist-singer Antti Vahtola’s multifaceted artistry.

Ferruccio Busoni met his future wife Gerda while living in Finland from 1888 to 1890, and composed the cello-piano duo Kultaselle (“To the Beloved”) as an engagement gift for her. The work is now heard for the first time in an arrangement for bass clarinet and piano.

Timo Hietala, known for his film music, presents in Musta sydän yhtä punainen kuin valkoinen (“ The Black Heart as Red as the White”) the entire color palette of the bass clarinet, with expressive nuances that remind us of tolerance and diversity.
The concert opens boldly with Kirmo Lintinen’s Oikku.