» Helsinki Baroque Orchestra

Ensemble

Photo Gallery

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(c) Marco Borggreve

 

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(c) Marco Borggreve

 

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(c) Maarit Kytöharju

 

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(c) Heikki Tuuli

Biography

The Helsinki Baroque Orchestra is an ensemble that has made a name for itself with its unmistakable way of presenting early music. Since its foundation in 1997, its style has been fresh, communicative and captivates listeners with its vitality and emotional eloquence. The orchestra has long since become an integral part of Finnish and international musical life. And the fact that the musicians all come from the still relatively young Finnish "early music scene" is a welcome change in the European orchestral landscape.

 

Aapo Häkkinen, who has led the ensemble since 2003, has contributed to this success. A harpsichordist by training, he has sharpened the orchestra's profile with his extensive knowledge of the repertoire and his uncompromising musical expertise. The Helsinki Baroque Orchestra now performs at the most important venues and festivals worldwide, from the Cologne Philharmonie to the Suntory Hall in Tokyo - with stops at London's Wigmore Hall, the Concertgebouw Amsterdam, the Berlin Konzerthaus, the Laeiszhalle Hamburg and the Frauenkirche Dresden, as well as at major festivals such as Bergen, Bremen, Rheingau and Jerusalem, to name but a few

 

The well-thought-out programs often include premieres of unpublished or reconstructed masterpieces, though well-known works are also brought to the stage with equal dedication, but then often presented in an unexpected, provocative light. The orchestra has received widespread acclaim with groundbreaking productions of operas by Monteverdi, Handel, Hasse, Koželuch and Schubert.

In 2019, it performed Johann Adolf Hasse's Irene in a concert performance in Helsinki, bringing the opera back to the stage for the first time since its premiere in 1738.  Works such as Cartellieri's Rübezahl and Galuppi's La Caduta di Adamo also promise exciting new discoveries in the coming years

 

Although the orchestra now travels all over the world, it naturally remains a permanent fixture in Finnish musical life. In 2011, an early music series was launched in the newly opened Helsinki Music Center, Musiikkitalo, which reaches a wide audience. With its visionary selection of repertoire and guest artists, it has helped early music achieve something of a cult status in Finland. Returning soloists and guest conductors include Max Emanuel Cenčić, Franco Fagioli, Reinhard Goebel, René Jacobs, Julia Lezhneva, Riccardo Minasi, Valer Sabadus, Carolyn Sampson, Skip Sempé and Dmitry Sinkovsky.

It has also launched its own midsummer festival in the idyllic setting of the medieval stone church of Janakkala

 

http://www.hebo.fi




Upcoming concerts

16.04.2025, München

Paradise Lost

with Ana Vieira Leite, Soprano

Read more...

 

 

17.04.2025, Lörrach (D), Burghof
Paradise Lost

with Ana Vieira Leite, Soprano

Read more...