The son of Johann Sebastian Bach (1685–1750), Carl Philipp Emanuel, described his father’s Sonatas BWV 1014–1019 as among the best works his father ever wrote and continued to perform them extensively after his father’s death. This is music of implication and inference, the emotions no less real for their apparent lack of specificity. There is pleasure in the paradox: even without a text, the music sings. “They still sound very good and give me much joy, although they date back more than fifty years. They contain some Adagios that could not be written in a more singable manner today”, writes C. P. E. Bach. In these new recordings, some of the greatest exponents of Baroque music in the Nordic countries, violinist Sirkka-Liisa Kaakinen-Pilch and keyboardist Tuija Hakkila join forces. Tuija Hakkila plays copy of a Gottfried Silbermann fortepiano 1747 by Andrea Restelli — J. S. Bach played one of his fortepianos in 1747 in Potsdam for Frederick the Great and his court musicians.

SIBELIUS, J.: Symphonies Nos. 2 and 6 (Helsinki Philharmonic

Rouse, C.: Gerettete Alberich (Der) / Rapture / Violin Conce

Sibelius, J.: Symphony No. 4 / Pohjola's Daughter / Finlandi

This set includes a Blu-ray audio CD playable on Blu-ray players only and a standard CD playable on all CD players.

This special CD Blu-Ray Audio Ondine release includes world première recordings of three orchestral works by Norwegian composer Rolf Wallin (b. 1957), among the most exciting contemporary composer figures in Scandinavia, performed by the Bergen Symphony Orchestra and Finnish conductor John Storgårds. Fisher King, a concertante piece for Trumpet and Orchestra (2011) features one of today’s greatest trumpeters, Håkan Hardenberger. Composed more than thirty years ago, Id was Mr. Wallin’s first-ever orchestral work. Manyworlds is an extensive, half-hour’s long orchestra work, jointly commissioned by the Bergen, Helsinki and NDR, Hannover orchestras. The title of the work refers to the Many-world theory in quantum physics dealing with a very large, perhaps infinite number of parallel universes. The Blu-Ray Audio disc, an Ondine first, also includes a 2D & 3D Video by Boya Bøckman based on Manyworlds.

Bartok, B.: Divertimento / Romanian Folk Dances / Rozsa, M:

Weill, K.: Kleine Dreigroschenmusik / Concerto for Violin an

This album by the Jyväskylä Sinfonia conducted by Ville Matvejeff presents three works by Éric Tanguy (b. 1968), one of the leading composers in contemporary French music with two outstanding soloists, clarinet Pierre Génisson and violinist Júlia Pusker. The Clarinet Concerto was written for French clarinetist Pierre Génisson to accompany Mozart’s Clarinet Concerto. However, this melodic and lyrical work in three movements does seek to establish an analogy with Mozart’s work. Tanguy’s 2nd Violin Concerto, revised in 2003, is built on a very classical form, is set in three movements and includes the archetypes of a traditional concerto, including a big cadenza, as well as the fast–slow–fast construction with the purpose of finding a balance with modern times. The concerto is performed by Júlia Pusker, prize-winner from the 2019 Queen Elizabeth violin competition in Brussels. Matka (‘journey’ in Finnish) is a symphonic piece written by Tanguy for Sibelius’ 150th anniversary and commissioned by the Jyväskylä Sinfonia. The work is a spiritual tribute to Sibelius, a composer that has inspired Tanguy for many decades.

Pawel Łukaszewski (b. 1968) is possibly the most-performed contemporary composer from Poland. His spiritual choral works are performed by both professional and amateur choirs around the world. Łukaszewski’s output has a significant position in Great Britain where his works are performed and premiered by renowned London and Cambridge choral ensembles. This new album by the award-winning State Choir LATVIJA under Maris Sirmais includes several world première recordings from the Polish master.

REVIEW:

The performances presented here by the State Choir of Latvia under its conductor, Māris Sirmais, are simply outstanding. At what seems to be about 50 voices, the choir is larger than a chamber choir but smaller than a symphonic choir, and it manages to combine the virtues of both in this tremendously impressive recital. The choir has no faults to my ear. Intonation and ensemble are excellent, all parts exhibit outstanding internal blend with no individual voices sticking out, and excessive vibrato – the bane of choral excellence – is non-existent. The choir exhibits an extreme dynamic range, and yet at both ends of that spectrum its technical control never wavers, whether at fff – where it can produce an immense sound with no sign of hardness – or when reduced to more soloistic proportions. The recording is well up to the challenge that such an ensemble presents, and the sound is rich, deep, resonant, and detailed all at once.

-- Fanfare

Fine performances, yes, but also a comprehensive, watertight Sibelius album to cherish.

Conductor Nicholas Collon began as the new Chief Conductor of the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra in September 2021. This all-Sibelius program, carefully selected by the conductor, is his debut album together with his new orchestra. Collon offers fresh and modern interpretation of Sibelius’ symphonic testament, the 7th Symphony, and brings to life the color and drama of Sibelius’ incidental music for two plays – Maeterlinck’s famous Pelléas et Mélisande and the historic King Christian II.

The Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra (FRSO) is the orchestra of the Finnish Broadcasting Company (Yle), and its mission is to produce and promote Finnish musical culture. The Radio Orchestra of ten players founded in 1927 grew to symphony orchestra proportions in the 1960s. Its Chief Conductors have been Toivo Haapanen, Nils-Eric Fougstedt, Paavo Berglund, Okko Kamu, Leif Segerstam, Jukka-Pekka Saraste, Sakari Oramo, Hannu Lintu, and as of autumn 2021 Nicholas Collon. In addition to the great Classical-Romantic masterpieces, the latest contemporary music is a major item in the repertoire of the FRSO, which each year premieres a number of Yle commissions.

REVIEW:

This is a rooted performance of Sibelius’s last symphony from the first non-Finn to lead the orchestra of the Finnish Broadcasting Company, one with true gravitas but little grandstanding.

Everything is clear in Collon’s recording but the moving parts heave despite the sure momentum, giving the discourse a visceral edge. The slight burgeoning of each note in the trombone motto, which blossoms but is traced more than declaimed, is indicative of the bigger picture: careful, sure but unobtrusive phrasing that moves the music on while conveying, especially in the final pages, the wrenching strain that is the essential precursor to that final, pained C major. Laura Heikinheimo’s sound is ideal in conveying the sense of gravitational, inevitable progress.

‘Élégie’ from King Christian II and ‘The Death of Melisande’ from Pelleas and Melisande need a special tenderness and space and get it but there are numbers in which Collon sounds absorbed by Sibelius’s creation of miniature structural marvels. Rarely have I heard the ‘Nocturne’ from King Christian II come to fruition like a miniature Symphony No 2, nor its ‘Ballade’ sound like a little sister to Pohjola’s Daughter.

But this is theater music and Collon sacrifices no greasepaint in his pursuit of structural logic. Perhaps it’s the cool finesse of the FRSO woodwinds, in particular, that succeed in drawing us into a sense of collective history in the old dances and old instruments (or imitations thereof) that characterize the music for King Christian II. It takes considered playing and extreme focus to reflect the ambiguities and fleeting emptiness of Pelleas. The broad bow strokes of ‘At the Castle Gate’, the steady withdrawal of ‘The Death of Melisande’ and the sinister lapping of ‘At the Seashore’ all speak of musicians well inside this music and determined to think patiently about its particular colors. Fine performances, yes, but also a comprehensive, watertight Sibelius album to cherish.

-- Gramophone

Latvian Radio Choir’s new album conducted by Sigvards Kļava marks the international debut of composer Alfred Momotenko (b. 1970). Momotenko was born in Lviv, Ukraine, in 1970. He studied at the Sochi College of Arts and later percussion at the Moscow State University of Culture and Art. In 1990, the political situation having changed, Momotenko moved to the Netherlands where he continued his studies at the Brabant Conservatory and at the Royal Conservatory in the Hague. Momotenko’s timeless choral works continue the centuries old great tradition of choral works combining them with contemporary language, a blend most recently exemplified by the likes of Alfred Schnittke.

Surrounded by choral music in his youth, Momotenko has returned to the world of choral music at a relatively late period: all the works on this album have been written between 2017 and 2022. Many of his enigmatic choral works are religious and could be described as poems or chants – larger than a miniature but less extensive than a fantasy, a narrative, a ballad or a story. Often there are two contrasting musical languages that are present: the ancient, pristine Znamennyj Chant and the modern one. Besides liturgic texts, Momotenko’s choral works include settings to poems by Boris Pasternak and Joseph Brodsky. The largest work, Na Strastnoy (On the Passion), is a companion piece Rachmaninoff’s All-Night Vigil.

REVIEW:

The recital is cleverly structured. We start on familiar ground with Creator of Angels – a setting of lines from Bella Akhmadulina (distilled here into a shorter whole) that supplicate for mercy. Threads of Znamenny chant run through thick vertical textures, always rooted in widespaced bass parts. The effect is ancient, but softening into 21st-century lyricism. We hear flickers of Silvestrov, Tavener and E≈envalds, but also of Chesnokov, Grechaninov and their ilk.

Then we start to push off from land – gently at first in the short Three Sacred Hymns, with their modal harmonies and sinuous lines that always seem to tug back to the fixed point of unison, and then more rhapsodically in Lullaby: upper voices an endless flat horizon, harp ripples and sound-bursts silhouetted against them. We’re in another world by the time we reach On the Passion. This setting of Pasternak’s poetry from Dr Zhivago (this time intended as a companion for Rachmaninoff’s Vespers) is a trove of imagery. Birdsong, bells, Holy Week processions and folk dances draw a musical ‘essay’ from Momotenko that extends the composer’s harmonic and textural vocabulary with nonsense syllables and stamping – effects as well as melodies. Voices are fragmented down to endless solo strands (the technical challenge is immense), intersecting and coming together with Ives-like sonic cinema.

Kl,ava marshals his singers with unobtrusive precision. The 24-strong group are shape-shifters, slipping imperceptibly from chorus to soloists, from knitted web to filigree strands. Balance, not dynamics, is the principal expressive force here. Kl,ava pulls details and lines forwards or pushes them back flush, creating the depth and play of light that really makes this debut sing.

-- Gramophone

This release includes new works written by Peteris Vasks (b. 1946), internationally the most well-known composer from Latvia, performed by his compatriots, the Latvian Radio Choir and Sinfonietta Riga under the direction of Sigvards Klava. During the years both the choir and the orchestra have collaborated extensively with the composer and premiered several works by him, including Da pacem, Domine which was premiered as a part of Peteris Vasks' 70th anniversary concert in 2016. This album is the third album dedicated to works by Vasks by the Latvian Radio Choir and Sigvards Klava on Ondine. Three works included on this album were written in 2016: Da pacem, Domine is according to the composer, a powerful “cry of desperation for our times, a prayer for our mad world. I believe that music strengthens our faith, love and soul.” Mein Herr und mein Gott is a work inspired by a solemn meditation written by a 15th century Swiss mystic Nicholas of Flüe, also known as Brother Klaus. The lyrics of Laudate Dominum, the title piece of the album, consist of only one sentence which is repeated by the choir. The choral texture of the work alternates with majestic organ episodes. The remaining two works in the album are based on texts by Mother Teresa.

The passing away of Einojuhani Rautavaara (1928–2016), one of the most performed Finnish composers after Sibelius, left a deep void in the field of Finnish contemporary music. This new album by cellist Tanja Tetzlaff and pianist Gunilla Süssmann includes Rautavaara’s rarely heard works written for cello and piano. The cornerstone of Rautavaara’s cello chamber music are the three sonatas. The earliest of the sonatas was written in 1969 and contains Baroque influences. Prior to this, the composer had already written Two Preludes and Fugues for cello and piano in 1955 firmly rooted in the Neo-Classical tradition as a young student. Soon after completing his solo cello sonata, the composer started writing his Neo-Romantic Sonata for Cello and Piano No. 1. However, the work was left unfinished and completed almost 30 years later, in 2001. Cello Sonata No. 2, completed in 1991, is much different in style, more modern and edgy, but based on a work written for a cello music competition in 1975. Polska (1977) for two cellos and piano is based on a folk tune from Rantasalmi. The origin of this work is connected to the genesis of Rautavaara’s first published opus, Fiddlers (Pelimannit) from the early 1950s. Song of My Heart (Sydämeni laulu) is the composer’s transcription from an aria included in his opera Aleksis Kivi (1995–96). In 2000, Rautavaara arranged the piece for cello, and fittingly for this funereal piece dedicated it to the memory of Estonian composer Lepo Sumera.

REVIEW:

As a mind-blowing display of technical accomplishment, I can only offer my congratulations to Tanja Tetzlaff who has a gorgeous Guadagnini cello of 1776 and an outstanding long-term piano partner in Gunilla Sussmann. Very good recorded quality and most highly recommended.

– David's Review Corner (David Denton)

Magnus Lindberg (b. 1958) is among the leading figures in today’s contemporary music internationally. This new release by the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra conducted by its chief conductor Hannu Lintu includes world premiere recordings of two new works by Magnus Lindberg: orchestral work Tempus fugit and Violin Concerto No. 2, featuring Frank Peter Zimmermann as its soloist.

This release also celebrates the composer’s 60th anniversary. Violin Concerto No. 2, written for Frank Peter Zimmermann, was composed during Lindberg’s tenure as the composer-in-residence for the London Philharmonic Orchestra. This three-movement work represents well Lindberg’s late lush orchestral style and is reminiscent to the tradition of great romantic violin concertos of the past. The concerto has three movements played without a break, with a solo cadenza towards the end of the second movement. The music is at times lucid and bright and at times lusciously sonorous, and the soloist is called upon to display both fireworks and soaring melodic arcs.

Tempus fugit was commissioned by the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra and premiered at the gala concert for the centenary of Finland’s independence in Helsinki in 2017. Although the work has a strong positive and even lucid fundamental tone, the composer did not seek to write a traditional anniversary piece. Instead, he sought a new approach through means that he had first employed in the 1980s, going back to the harmonic studies that he had undertaken on computer, using the LISP programming language – the same that he had used when creating his first major orchestral work, Kraft (1983–85). The result, however, is quite different from his edgy, even aggressive, early works: Tempus fugit is a 30-minute orchestral work embracing an Impressionist brightness of color, melodic lines and a warm Romantic glow. The work is dedicated to Hannu Lintu.

This new recording by Gävle Symphony Orchestra with conductor Jaime Martín is a tribute to the work of Johannes Brahms. The art of Brahms has inspired countless of artists and composers since the 19th century up to our times. Arnold Schoenberg was one of the composers who greatly admired Brahms’ work. Schoenberg was particularly fond of Brahms’ 1st Piano Quartet (Op. 25) and when Otto Klemperer suggested him to orchestrate it in 1937, Schoenberg took the task without hesitation. Schoenberg regarded his reworking of the Piano Quartet – often dubbed as ‘Brahms’ Fifth’ – as an act of homage to Brahms, and he believed he had finally succeeded in addressing the composer’s concerns about the original score. No wonder that Schoenberg’s masterful arrangement has remained in the concert programs of symphony orchestras.

English composer Sir Hubert Parry (1848-1918) wrote his orchestral work, Elegy for Johannes Brahms, in 1897 in memory of his recently deceased musical idol. This short symphonic movement, which makes some overt references to Brahms’s music, was never performed in the composer’s lifetime, and only received its premiere after Parry’s own death in 1918. After that, it languished unplayed until it was again resurrected in 1977. After decades of neglect, this recording is a manifestation of the recent growing interest in Parry’s music. Gävle Symphony Orchestra, founded in Sweden in 1912, has a long and exciting history.

Since 2013, the orchestra has enjoyed a fruitful musical partnership with principal conductor Jaime Martín, but the orchestra has also collaborated regularly with renowned international conductors. This is the orchestra’s fourth album to be released by Ondine. Jaime Martín became the Artistic Director and Principal Conductor of Gävle Symphony Orchestra in 2013. During recent years orchestral engagements have led the rising conductor to collaborate with several prominent orchestras around the world. Martín is also Chief Conductor of the Orquestra de Cadaqués and known for his active career as solo flautist.