It’s only a coincidence that we arrived in Finland for the Helsinki Organ Summer, a broad music festival featuring nearly 100 organ concerts hosted across central Helsinki churches, the Kallio district, and Suomenlinna throughout the summer season. We were trying to find someplace cool in Europe to visit after the Three Choirs Festival and chose Finland. “Cool” as in cool temperatures is what we got — I’m afraid I’m regretting that I didn’t bring a jacket on this trip, so I’ve been dressing in layers.

The concert we went to on Sunday night in the Helsinki Cathedral was part of the festival, as was a concert we went to last night at the Kallio Church. I had heard this church has a reputation for holding many concerts because of the reverberant acoustics, in addition to having two large pipe organs, a neo-Baroque one in the front and the other, a French Romantic organ in the back. The recitalist, Jan Lehtola, played the first part of the concert on the front organ with music from Vincent Lübeck, J. S. Bach and Olli Saari (b. 1990).

With the first notes from this organ, I turned to Bill Potter and mouthed the words, “THAT’S LOUD!” and wondered if anyone else was bothered by the sheer volume of the sound. The smaller of the two organs, it was built by Kangasala Organ Factory, Finland in 1987. I was grateful that Lehtola played “Vater unser im Himmelreich” from the Clavierübung as the selection by Bach, as it was on the quieter side. It was one of the hardest pieces of Bach I ever played, but once I learned it, I really liked it. But the rest of the pieces were almost painfully too loud.

One thing I’ve noticed in this series of concerts is that people only applaud at the end of the concert, and not after every piece. Because this concert was given on two different organs, people did applaud after the contemporary piece by Olli Saari. For my ears, though, it was too loud.

The second half of the concert was given on the French Romantic organ in the back, which is the church’s primary instrument. Built in 1995 by the renowned Swedish organ builder Åkerman & Lund, it represents a milestone in Finnish musical history. Lehtola played works by Charles-Marie Widor, César Franck and Louis Vierne (“Symphonie 5, Final,op. 47.) The Franck selection was the A major Fantasy, which I have not heard since I played it in high school. All of the music was well-played but I”m afraid I had to stick my fingers in my ears during the loud sections—it was just TOO LOUD!—at least for my ears. However, I didn’t see other people bothered by it—maybe they’re just used to it!

This morning we toured Uspenski Cathedral, a Finnish Orthodox church, one of the most important attractions in Helsinki and a venue for numerous concerts every year. The Uspenski Cathedral is considered to be the largest Orthodox temple in Northern and Western Europe. The cathedral’s size is emphasized by its location on the highest hill of the Katajanokka district. The central cupola of the cathedral is 33 meters high. The cathedral was designed by the Russian church architect Aleksei M. Gornostajev. The Uspenski Cathedral was consecrated on October 25th, 1868. However, as in other Orthodox churches, there is no organ.

We have been getting around Helsinki on the excellent tram system. Each day we have bought a 24-hour pass for 10.5 euros which gives us unlimited rides. As I said earlier, the tram station is right in front of our hotel, making it super convenient. Bill is in charge of getting us around the public transportation and we haven’t been lost even once.

At noon today we went to another of the Helsinki Organ Summer concerts, this time at the Old Church with Mimi Klemettinen, organist, playing a short, all-Bach program. She is Chinese, having been educated at the Shanghai Conservatory of Music, and is married to a Finnish husband.

The organ is a historic 36-stop pipe instrument by Per Larsson Åkerman in 1869. It has mechanical stop action.

She played all pieces I know intimately: “Von Gott will ich nicht lassen,” from the Great 18 Chorales, the Fantasy and Fugue in G minor, and the second movement from the C major trio sonata. It was considered a “Short Organ Recital,” but I’m afraid the tempi of the music was too slow for my tastes. Bill thought we should only go to concerts where I’ve not already played the music!

After the concert we stopped at St. George’s Bakery for a little snack before going out to another organ recital this afternoon and a choral and organ concert tonight.