TOGETHER
INTRODUCTION: Contemporary Music Through the Ages
We know from music history that, in different periods, the music most commonly performed was the music of the time. Instruments and playing techniques were developed to support the aesthetic ideals of each era. As a result, the performance practices associated with the different periods and styles of early music were not passed down in a straightforward, continuous line.
In the 19th century, however, interest and curiosity towards composers from earlier periods – including those of the Baroque – began to grow. Wonderful old compositions were brought back into the repertoire, but they were interpreted through the aesthetic grammar of the Romantic era.
By the middle of the 20th century, musicians and scholars in Central Europe, particularly in the German-speaking countries and the Netherlands, began to question the use of Romantic performance practices in older music. They immersed themselves in historical sources that provided information about articulation, tuning systems and instruments. A whole new world opened up, revealing compelling new dimensions in early music. A Baroque music movement emerged in Central Europe, together with a new generation of important Baroque orchestras.
THE BAROQUE MUSIC MOVEMENT IN THE NORDIC COUNTRIES
Like mushrooms after rain: new musicians and ensembles
The Baroque music movement spread to the Nordic countries through musicians who had studied in Central Europe. Swedish musicians founded the Drottningholm Baroque Ensemble in 1971. The Kuudennen kerroksen orkesteri – today known as the Finnish Baroque Orchestra – began its activities in 1989, while the Norwegian ensemble Barokkanerne also gave its first concerts in the late 1980s. Concerto Copenhagen was founded in 1991.
Alongside these orchestras, particularly Finland developed a broad and strong field of Baroque expertise at an early stage, partly thanks to education specialising in early music. Today, Finland in particular has numerous early-music ensembles. City orchestras and other orchestras also provide further training for their musicians with specialists in early music, who often lead their Baroque concerts.
NORDIC BAROQUE SCENE (NBS)
Motto: The Nordic Baroque scene is alive and embraces the magnificent works of early music with a fresh and innovative approach.
Nordic cooperation in the field of Baroque music took concrete steps through the Viking Barokk concerts in 2018–2019. Led by the Finnish Baroque Orchestra’s audience engagement team, FiBO Collegium, the project involved hundreds of young people across four countries.
Nordic Baroque Scene was born out of the positive experiences of this collaboration. At the inaugural meeting, it was decided that the cooperation would focus on concrete artistic projects, particularly among professional musicians. This has allowed artistic and production ideas to grow through collaboration, while organisational learning has also developed in an inspiring way.
Among the most important projects have been the Aria Borealis singing competition in Norway in 2022 and, the following year, the Nordic Lights festival in Berlin. The festival was connected to an extensive network project involving orchestras and festivals across several countries, with numerous concerts and partners.
These projects have brought international visibility to the members of NBS, as well as recognition for their exemplary ability to collaborate rather than emphasise competition between one another.
Each NBS orchestra has its own distinctive character. What they share is a Nordic working culture characterised by high quality and reliability, together with the ability to throw themselves into developing new ideas as a team.
There is a familiar saying that captures the spirit of this collaboration perfectly: together, we are more than the sum of our parts.
CONTEMPORARY MUSICIANS AND THE CONTEMPORARY MUSIC OF THE PAST
Rhetoric and chamber-music interaction, hierarchies, tuning and ornamentation
So how does performing Baroque music differ from performing music of the Romantic era?
Without forgetting that every issue has many sides and possible interpretations, certain typical characteristics can nevertheless be highlighted. When, for example, playing a Brahms symphony, the focus is often on long melodic lines and an even, continuous sound. The musical grammar of Bach, by contrast, is built more strongly around hierarchies between different parts of the beat and a speech-like, rhetorical quality.
In performances of Romantic music, vibrato adds roundness to the sound and intensifies its emotional expression. In the Baroque era, however, vibrato was more like an improvised ornament – an expressive device used selectively.
A restrained use of vibrato works best when the relationship to the sound is more direct and when the instrument’s natural harmonic spectrum can be allowed to speak.
To put it somewhat provocatively: throughout history, tuning pitch and volume have tended to rise in an effort to increase the impact of music – perhaps at the expense of clarity and the audibility of the harmonic spectrum. Fortunately, this perspective is not entirely straightforward either: different villages and cities have used different tuning systems, some of them even higher than today’s standard.
For today’s musician, much of the joy of Baroque music comes from exploring the historical sources and its musical grammar to an appropriate extent. After that, however, what ultimately matters is musicianship that is alive in the moment – and the ability to move and connect with the audience.
ARIA BOREALIS AND BOREALLAS
There are many ways to join the carnival!
Aria Borealis is a contemporary singing competition format developed through the Nordic Baroque Scene collaboration. The competition emphasises chamber-music interaction between singers and instrumentalists, networking and learning.
The eight singers selected through the online auditions therefore take part in both the semi-final and the final. The performances are developed and refined together with the jury and fellow musicians.
And what about Boreallas? Around Aria Borealis, things are buzzing and bubbling as the Boreallas carnival programme offers many different ways to participate. The programme includes masterclasses, performances, panel discussions and workshops for professionals, amateurs and those simply curious to experiment.
AT A GLANCE
Nordic Baroque Scene – the orchestras
- Finnish Baroque Orchestra (chair role)
- Barokkanerne (Norway)
- Drottningholm Baroque Ensemble (Sweden)
- Concerto Copenhagen (Denmark)
- Floridante (Estonia)
- nordicbaroque.com
Aria Borealis / Musiikkitalo, Helsinki
- 2 October 2026 – Semi-final
- 4 October 2026 – Final
- ariaborealis.com
Boreallas / Musiikkitalo and other venues / Helsinki
- 1–4 October 2026 – Boreallas & Helsinki Early Music Festival
- helsinkiearlymusicfestival.fi
