I was supposed to run a contest promoting the premiere of Magnus Lindberg’s Kraft tonight at the NYPhil but I forgot (that’ll teach them to do business with a card-carrying member of the Medicare set) so this is a makeup. I have tickets for the October 12 performance for the first person who can tell me the name of American composer whose Second Symphony is based on a single lyrical motif and explain what in the hell this has to do with Magnus Lindberg. I also have a pair for the first person to correctly identify the Helsinki hotel at whose bar my wife and I paid $50 for two bloody marys about 20 years ago. One hotel per person, please. Bonne chance.
New clue: Jose’s Howard Hanson is a good try and may be the winner but he is not the composer or connection to Magnus Lindberg I had in mind. So, here’s an additional clue: the composer in question was also a pretty well-known music critic and he died at 63.
Hey, Dave and Jose. Dave had Lester Trimble right and Jose had the right hotel. Contact me immediately and I’ll tell you how to get the tickets. Send me a note at sequenza21@gmail.com
Well… Can I guess another hotel then? If so: Sokos Hotel Vaakuna. 😉
Lester Trimble. He was the second New York Philharmonic Composer-in-Residence (1967-68). Magnus Lindberg is the sixth.
As for the American composer: Howard Hanson.
The tie: Howard Hanson was very active with UNESCO. Magnus Lindberg’s “Kraft” was the selected work of UNESCO International Rostrum of Composers in 1986.
I’ll start with the hotel: Hotel Kamp.