Classical Music

Joonas Kokkonen is one of the most important Finnish composers of the twentieth century. His music radiates warmth and light, but also contains moments of grandeur and rhythmic energy. His Requiem, written in memory of his first wife, is both a powerful choral symphony and a tender, moving embodiment of consolation. Originally scored for large orchestra, the Requiem is heard here in a new version for organ intended to bring the work within the reach of smaller forces. This first recording is complemented by the first complete recording of Kokkonen’s four works for solo organ. Suvi Vayrynen, soprano, has quickly emerged as one of Finland’s most exciting young singers after winning first prize in the female category at the Lappeenranta Singing Competition, Finland’s premier vocal competition. She also appeared in the first episode of the BBC4 documenary Bright Lights, Brilliant Minds: A Tale of Three Cities, released in the UK in August 2014. Joose Vahasoyrinki, baritone, completed a M. Mus. degree in church music at the Kuopio department of the Sibelius Academy, and in spring 2010 he completed the level A examination in voice with excellent marks. Jan Lehtola can be heard on more than 30 commercial recordings. For Toccata Classics he recorded an album of the complete organ music of William Humphreys Dayas, and another or music for organ and piano. Heikki Liimola has conducted several distinguished choirs, and was nominated Choral Conductor of the Year in 1998. One of the main aims of the Klementi Institute Chamber Choir is to promote new and rarely performed choral music.

Classical Music

Classical Music

Classical Music

Classical Music

Classical Music

Classical Music

Classical Music

Classical Music

Classical Music

Joly Braga Santos (1924-88) was one of the most important composers in twentieth-century Portugal. In his early works his fondness for modal harmony, absorbed from the Portuguese masters of the Renaissance, and his busy counterpoint combine to make him sound surprisingly close to such particularly English composers as Vaughan Williams and Moeran. Although his harmonic language became more astringent with time, it retained a burly sense of humor and a powerful charge of energy, often infused with the spirit of Portuguese folk-dance. The five works on this second volume cover three decades of composition, from the mid-1950s to the mid-1980s, and offer a wide array of instrumental combinations.

When Germany invaded Austria in 1938, Robert Fürstenthal, born in 1920, took the path of many Viennese Jews and fled to the United States, where he made his living as an accountant; the fact that he had written music in his youth was soon forgotten. Reconnection, after 35 years, with the woman who had been his first love rekindled both that flame and his urge to compose, and from then on songs and chamber music flowed from his pen, preserving the spirit of fin-de-siècle Vienna under the Californian sun – ‘When I compose, I am back in Vienna’, he explained. He died in November 2016, aged 96, knowing that his lyrical, eloquent music was at last attracting the attention of both musicians and microphones.

The larger part of the organ music of the American composer Vincent Persichetti (1915-87) was composed towards the end of his life, with of some of those pieces receiving their first recordings here. Several are based on hymn tunes, which can often be heard in the background - re-emerging in glorious affirmation in the Auden Variations. On occasion the language suggests a kaleidoscopic admixture of Hindemith and Messiaen, bristling with edgy flashes of color; and Do not go gentle, an essay for pedals alone after the Dylan Thomas poem, is a statement of austere power. What these highly contrasted works have in common is complete textural clarity: Persichetti had been playing the organ since boyhood, and his writing for the instrument is that of a master. Tom Winpenny, who has already experienced much success with his organ recordings, presents Persichetti's organ works on this new release.

Classical Music