Classical Music

Classical Music

Classical Music

Classical Music

Classical Music

Classical Music

Classical Music

This new album by the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra and its chief conductor Nicholas Collon features some of the most recent orchestral compositions by Magnus Lindberg culminating with his new Viola Concerto, a substantial new work masterfully performed by Lawrence Power as soloist.

Composer Magnus Lindberg (b. 1958) is one of Europe's leading names in contemporary music. Having traveled a long road as a composer, from the steely and edgy modernism of his early period to the soft and sonorous sound worlds of his most recent output, Lindberg's new, more emollient sound world building on a harmonic environment rooted in pentatonic scales at times seem to hark back even to Debussy and Impressionism.

Classical Music

Magnus Lindberg is one of Finland' most important living composers. The differences between his piano works from the late 1970s and early 1980s and those composed in the early years of the 21st century, following a break of 12 years, can seem quite s.

Includes work(s) by various composers. Soloist: Jakob Lindberg.

This special box contains all four of Ralph van Raat's Naxos recordings plus an exclusive interview CD which includes music selected by Ralph specifically for this boxed set. Also on this bonus CD, Ralph speaks about his musical choices for the set, as well as his own playing in an exclusive interview with Naxos Classical Music Spotlight's very own Raymond Bisha. Featured composers include: Tavener, Adams, Rzewski, Lindberg, Takemitsu, Ives, Bolcom, Messiaen, and more. 1. Adams, J.: Piano Music (Complete) 2. Rzewski, F.: People United will never be Defeated (The) (Van Raat) 3. Tavener: Piano Works 4. Lindberg, M.: Piano Music (Van Raat) - Klavierstuck / Play I / Jubilees / Twine / Etudes 5. Artist Profile Series - Van Raat, Ralph

First, a confession: I have always found Magnus Lindberg a hard nut to crack. His music is full of incident, he has a fastidious ear for sonority, and as composers go he is a virtuoso; but there is an aggressive edge to his work?as there is also with Birtwistle?which can sometimes make for a harsh, grating result. Lindberg?s music is dense and uncompromising: never dull? it?s far too clever for that?but rarely light-hearted or delicate either. His Clarinet Concerto of 2002 is a good example of the pros and cons of his work. Written for the amazing musician Kari Krikku, with whom he has often collaborated, it covers as wide a range of instrumental techniques as you (or Lindberg) could possibly imagine. The Concerto begins with a limpid Debussy-like figure from the soloist, who is soon joined by glistening strings and rhapsodic orchestral woodwinds; no doubt about it, the opening is gorgeous. Before too long, however, the ear tires (well, mine does) of the soloist?s rapid scales, piercing stratospheric tones, extreme register jumps, and split-reed growls. It is the contemporary equivalent of those 19th­-century piano concertos with their dense passages of virtuosity for its own sake; only the greatest composers managed to make music out of them. From moment to moment, this concerto is absorbing, but the argument constantly seems to be interrupted by banal pyrotechnics. Lindberg wrote the concerto expressly to showcase the talents of Krikku, but in my opinion he could have stepped back a little to see the bigger picture. The orchestral writing is highly polished?in no way do I wish to suggest there is anything second-hand about this music?and the performances from everyone here, not least the clarinetist, are phenomenal. The notes tell us the work falls into five sections, and that it has a ?dramaturgical? layout. I can?t hear any of that: to me, the form seems random, wandering from one episode or texture to another. A chorale from the soloist in alt accompanied by the orchestral brass turns up twice, the second time to close the work: that?s all the formal structure I could discern. Other listeners may respond on a more visceral level?and clarinet-players will be stunned. (They should also get hold of Krikku and Saramo?s Ondine recording of clarinet concertos by Crussell.)


Gran Duo , for 13 winds and 11 brass, was premiered by Sir Simon Rattle in Birmingham in 2002. The point of departure here is Stravinsky?s Symphonies of Wind Instruments . Maybe it?s because Lindberg is not showcasing a particular soloist?there are 24 soloists, in fact?but I find this work to be more interesting. The blocks of sound first posited by Stravinsky in his 1920 masterwork are elaborated with dense, virtuoso figuration. The cake/icing relationship as it might be termed of brass to wind is forever shifting, manipulated by the composer?s deft sleight of hand. (Excuse my mixed metaphor!) One of the most memorable moments is a solemn brass chorale following a gentle passage for flutes in their highest register. The harmony is polytonal; Lindberg rarely sounds to be in any particular key. The piece ends with somber brass chords centering on the trombones. If you enjoy the Stravinsky, you?ll certainly respond to this.


Chorale is a short work designed to be played with Berg?s Violin Concerto: it quotes the same Bach chorale, Es ist genung , and concludes on a resonant major chord from widely spaced strings. It feels like a study for some larger opus.


In spite of my reservations concerning the Clarinet Concerto, this is an engrossing disc overall. I find Lindberg similar to the Estonian Erkki-Sven Tüür (they are only one year apart in age). Both composers produce music that is busy, dense, and texturally fascinating; both are at the peak of their creativity. To my mind, Tüür?s work satisfies on a deeper level, but that is to take nothing away from Ondine?s achievement. Sound is, as usual, first-class.


FANFARE: Phillip Scott

Avant-garde origins never quite let go. Brilliance, fantastic, imaginative orchestra textures all add to the draw of this music.

Make no mistake, Finnish composer Magnus Lindberg is a cutting-edge modernist nor has his blade been stropped smooth. It's severing is achieved through ragged saw-teeth and violent conflict.

He attended classes given by Paavo Heininen at Helsinki’s Sibelius Academy. Later he studied in Darmstadt with Ferneyhough and Lachenmann and with Donatoni at Siena and Grisey in Paris.

The works featured here have been riffled and reshuffled to present them broken from original couplings and sequenced early to late: 1982 to 2005.

Tendenza gives no quarter. Its upheaval and collisions are utterly committed. The shock-waves radiate outwards. Dissonance is the norm as is fragmentation and belligerence. Kraft is as obsidian-hard as Tendenza. It somehow embodies preferences for things that are fast and complicated. Its first of two segments ends in slowly turning scintillation. The second section quivers, squeaks and moans though ultimately rises to growling sharply accentuated aggression and a shriek of volleyed violence. Kinetics, written after a debilitating tropical illness forced silence on him for 18 months is more pointilliste than Kraft and Tendenza. Parts of it are redolent of Stravinsky's Petrushka though the music also lashes out with a vengeful goad and in viscous dissonance .

Marea starts with violent upheaval and nightmare bass-accented attack. As with Tendenza Avanti! sounds every bit the full orchestra - not scaled down at all. On the other hand, as the movement progresses, there are more foot and hand holds for the less ‘advanced’ listener and the accelerating rush speaks directly if with more wildness than we may be used to. A sprinting piano adds decorative pearlescent streamers and there is some degree of repetition to acclimatise the ears and mind. In this sense the music is a little closer to Silvestrov symphonies 4 and 5.

Joy is the third panel of the trilogy of Kinetics, Marea and Joy. It is dissonant yet has a softer impact but is just as complex in texture - with pianos, electronics and vividly recorded percussion.

Corrente for chamber orchestra shivers with eldritch life and references Stravinsky time and again but filtered through Darmstadt's disaffected alembic. Tragedy tolls out at the end. Corente II is a rewrite of Corrente for full orchestra and is allowed much more space. There are some lyric insurgencies and plenty of generously rhythmic interest.

Coyote Blues is another chamber orchestra piece. This incorporates ululating material redolent of 1960s Hovhaness and Penderecki with baleful trombones and rolling and roiling waves of sound. A Petrushka-like delight is suddenly shaken free at 10:09.

Arena has an abundance of fine lines often seething in activity and rising to a high glowing voltage of shining writing for violins. This is closed off by a steady humming diminuendo.

Arena II is the original written but large rather like the Corrente pair but by no means as effective in its dénouement.

Feria is jewelled with little fanfare figures allocated to brass and woodwind as individuals.

Gran duo strips out the strings and percussion leaving us in a tension net between brass and woodwind. There are no lead soloists - not a concerto except that all these Lindberg works sound like Concertos for Orchestra. His title Concerto for Orchestra comes after Chorale - the shortest piece here and one written expressly as a companion to the Berg Violin Concerto. It makes frank play with Bach's Es ist genug. The Concerto for Orchestra is a single movement piece of about half an hour duration. Its demeanour and fantastically mercurial nature brought home to me that all his orchestral pieces are display effusions, Darmstadt or otherwise.

The final and most recent work is Sculpture. Violins are elided. Instead we hear an orchestra of quadruple woodwind, two thrumming pianos, two harps, organ, two Wagner tubas and full brass complement. Again this is a spectacular written to complement the vast space of the Walt Disney Hall in Los Angeles. A touch of ancient Rome aside, this is very much another virtuoso race-course as well as reminiscent of Penderecki and Sibelius at his most the most enigmatic and his most heroic and most catastrophic. It operates as a sort of dissonant Pohjola's Daughter. This is a vast lapidary gauze in motion cut across with gritty rhythmic attack as at 18:11. Parts of this look towards the grand tone poems of David Mathews. The sunburst at 1830 onwards is redolent of the sunrise in Night-Ride and Sunrise complete with an extravagantly chattering organ. It’s a mite garrulous but full of delights in the manner of Silvestrov's psychedelia. It ends on an almost Baxian glow; so very different from the Tendenza of two decades before.

There’s a good English and Finnish booklet by Kimmi Korhonen which tells you what you want to know at about the right pace and length. Avant-garde origins never quite let go - why should they - but brilliance, fantastic imaginative orchestra textures and Stravinskian mulch all add to the draw of this music.

-- Rob Barnett, MusicWeb International

Recently Composer-in-Residence with the New York Philharmonic, Magnus Lindberg has created works that deeply impress listeners. Acclaimed violinist Pekka Kuusisto performs the Violin Concerto as the composer conducts.

These world première recordings combine four of Magnus Lindberg's chamber works from the 2000s, although the roots of one of them go back to the 1990s.

Magnus Lindberg's composer personality has always been coloured by a strong sense of practical musicianship. It is evident in his orchestral works and concertos in his rich instrumental invention and the demanding yet gratifying and idiomatic instrumental parts. The same applies to his chamber music works, but here the musicianship aspect is even more evident especially in more recent works, which Lindberg has written specifically for himself to perform on the piano. Magnus Lindberg has written many pieces for clarinetist Kari Kriikku and cellist Anssi Karttunen, two important figures in contemporary music scene in Finland. The Clarinet Trio, including fine reminiscences of Brahms and Ravel, now brings together these two musicians with the composer himself on piano.

Hailed by the New York Times as "A physically flamboyant player of Olympian virtuosity...", Kari Kriikku has been a living inspiration behind a great number of remarkable Finnish compositions for the clarinet. On stage and through recordings, he has championed concertos and chamber works written for him by Kimmo Hakola, Jouni Kaipainen, Magnus Lindberg, Uljas Pulkkis, Kaija Saariaho, and Jukka Tiensuu. Above all, Kari Kriikku has premiered the entire output for clarinet by Magnus Lindberg. His recording of the Clarinet Concerto earned him both a Gramophone Award and a BBC Music Magazine Award in 2006.

Anssi Karttunen is a passionate advocate for contemporary music. He has performed over 125 world premieres, collaborating with such composers as Magnus Lindberg, Kaija Saariaho, Rolf Wallin, Luca Francesconi, and Tan Dun. An astounding 24 concertos have been written for him, among them Magnus Lindberg's cello concerto premiered with the Orchestre de Paris, and Kaija Saariaho's concerto Notes on Light.

- Ondine

This new album by the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra and conductor Hannu Lintu includes two of Magnus Lindberg’s (b. 1958) recent compositions featuring soprano Anu Komsi as soloist in Accused. Magnus Lindberg is among the leading figures in today’s contemporary music and the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra enjoys a particularly close relationship with the composer. Vocal music, with the exception of the award-winning work Graffiti (2009) for choir and orchestra, is a rare medium among Lindberg’s output. Accused (2014) is Lindberg’s first work written for a solo voice and orchestra. The work was jointly commissioned by the London Philharmonic, Radio France, the Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra, the Toronto Symphony Orchestra, the Cleveland Orchestra and Carnegie Hall. The work was premiered in London in January 2015. Lindberg chose extracts from actual interrogations in three historically and politically different situations: from the French Revolution, an extract from East Germany’ Stasi archives, and part of the Bradley (now Chelsea) Manning interrogation. Accused reflects universal human values that transcend transitory politics. Two Episodes (2016) is an orchestral work that was written for the London Proms in 2016 to accompany Beethoven’s 9th Symphony. With this in mind the work is scored for a similar orchestra that is required to play Beethoven’s 9th. Lindberg also concluded his work on the same A–E fifth that opens Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony, meaning that the transition can be without a pause. Nevertheless, Two Episodes is an independent work and can naturally be performed without the Beethoven. Beethoven’s musical thinking left an imprint on the work, though in the form of distanced references and spiritual kinship rather than stylistic influences. Although textural similarities to Beethoven can be identified in the music, they blend seamlessly into the colorful tapestry that principally seems to hark from the orchestral brilliance of Ravel and Debussy.

Classical Music

For the past twenty years, while maintaining an unsurpassed career as a trombone soloist and in tandem with being a sought-after conductor, Christian Lindberg has also been composing. Previous releases of his music have earned him critical praise: the reviewer in American Record Guide ‘was captivated by his interesting ideas and rich harmonic language’ while his counterpart on German website Klassik-Heute characterised Lindberg as ‘a marvellously deft, self-reliant composer’. The present album is the third BIS release dedicated entirely to Lindberg’s music, and features some of his more recent works. In his own liner notes, Lindberg describes his method of working, and explains the background of the three pieces recorded here with the Odense Symphony Orchestra. In regards to Steppenwolf, his viola concerto, he was attracted by the solo instrument’s ‘melancholic and deep qualities … offering an opportunity to compose something that could never be expressed in the same way with, for instance, a violin’. In a classical, three-movement concerto form, the work isn’t programmatic as such, but while composing it, Lindberg was reminded of the novel by Hermann Hesse. The title of the following piece, on the other hand, refers to a previous composition by Lindberg himself. Composed for a television project involving music as well as dance, the fifteen-minute Tales of Galamanta uses material from the ‘arte commedia’ Dawn from Galamanta.

Classical Music

Classical Music

Classical Music

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REVIEW:

The Finnish composer-pianist Magnus Lindberg has been the Marie-Josée Kravis Composer-in-Residence at the New York Philharmonic since 2009, at which time the post was initiated by the NYPO’s current Music Director, Alan Gilbert.

I have been aware of Lindberg for some time, but this was my first opportunity for in-depth listening. First impressions were of a restless, often aggressive musical persona; of constantly changing musical landscapes, and brightly coloured, dramatic orchestration. Lindberg’s music is not excessively dissonant or discordant, and he does not shy away from key-centres either. In that sense his music is, as represented here, relatively accessible. On the other hand, it is very complex, and almost profligate in its material; none of these works has a single dominating motif … that I could discern, anyway.

As you listen, you become more and more aware of how cunningly shaped his music is, following definite emotional paths, and evolving, as it were, organically. Thus Expo, on track 1, has a kaleidoscopic feel to it, yet in the end seems satisfyingly inevitable and complete. The performance by the NYPO in the première, recorded here, is quite wonderful, reminding us what a very great ensemble this is.

They are matched by the astonishing pianism of Bronfman in the concerto. This is in three movements, which play without a break. Though it requires both hands to perform (and how - an extra one or two wouldn’t have come amiss), it has a close and intriguing affinity with the Ravel D minor concerto, written for Paul Wittgenstein, who lost his right arm in WW1. Lindberg’s work follows the same kind of progress as the Ravel - from an opening in Stygian depths of darkness to an affirmative conclusion. There are also numerous specific references to the French composer’s themes, rhythmic patterns and textures that are both fascinating and maddeningly elusive. It is a fine and often thrilling work, and Bronfman’s performance, again in the première, is breathtakingly assured.

The Italian phrase Al largo - apparently man being offshore, on the open sea - has much in common with Expo in its sense of shifting land- and seascapes. It is, though, a much longer, more fully developed work, dominated by heroic brass fanfares, busy tuned percussion, and delicate woodwind writing; the solo oboe is particularly prominent. Again there is a sense of finding, then losing, then rediscovering tonal centres as points of rest and stability.

This is an exciting CD, brilliantly performed and recorded; as an introduction to one of the most approachable and individual voices in contemporary music, it could hardly be bettered.

-- Gwyn Parry-Jones, MusicWeb International

Magnus Lindberg (b. 1958) is an important voice in European contemporary classical music. This album includes some of Lindberg’s most recent works for orchestra. The pieces were written during or right after his tenure as composer-in-residence with the New York Philharmonic Orchestra. Anssi Karttunen is the featured cellist for the Cello Concerto No. 2, and the Finnish Radio Orchestra with conductor Hannu Lintu is the performing ensemble. Lindberg currently serves as composer-in-residence with the London Philharmonic Orchestra.