This recording is dedicated to two recent concertos by Kalevi Aho, one of Finland's foremost contemporary composers. The author of a body of work as important as it is varied, Aho enjoys collaborating with exceptional soloists, for whom he composes works that highlight their musical qualities, inventiveness and personality. The Concerto for Alto Flute and Strings features an instrument with a soft tone, well suited as a soloist with a small orchestra of strings alone. The work is in six movements played without interruption, and the soloist, Sharon Bezaly, sometimes switches to the bass flute, which brings a mystical feel to the music. The St Michel Strings and their conductor, Erkki Lasonpalo, contribute to the mysterious atmosphere in which lyrical and dramatic episodes abound. The Double Concerto for Viola, Percussion and Orchestra, entitled 'Moonlight Concerto', was composed at the initiative of a Berlin-based musician couple, violist Hiyoli Togawa and percussionist Alexej Gerassimez. Here we are immersed in a Japanese atmosphere that reveals echoes of the 1,000-year-old tradition of ritualistic gagaku music. In this work, the percussionist plays instruments that are not usually heard in orchestral concerts, such as the moon gong, the waterphone, a hang drum and nine Thai gongs. The Lahti Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Anja Bihlmaier, provides the rich orchestral commentary.

For those who have followed the career of Kalevi Aho (for instance through the more than 20 discs of his music released on BIS), it will be clear that he enjoys large-scale projects. One such project has been his 'oboe project', composing works in every genre for the instrument. These plans can be said to have begun soon after the Sonata for oboe and piano included here, composed in 1984-85 and thus possibly the first such work for this combination by a Finnish composer. The project received fresh impetus in 2002, when Aho encountered the eminent Belgian oboist Piet Van Bockstal. As a result he composed his Oboe Concerto, premièred by Bockstal in 2008, a work in which Aho wanted to explore fresh directions for tonality as well as creating orchestral music with a more powerful rhythmic pulse and a richer sound-world. As a result the Concerto employs scales from Arabic classical music as a melodic basis in some of its five movements, and also features the Arabic darabuka and African djembe (two types of goblet drum). Although there is no oboe included in the orchestral score, Aho also specifies the use of two of its rarely heard relatives: the oboe d'amore and the heckelphone (a baritone oboe). Three years after the Concerto, the composer returned to his oboe project, and completed it by writing a solo piece for the instrument. Dedicated to Piet Van Bockstal, the 10-minute Solo IX also forms part of another of Aho's projects - a series of large-scale, virtuosic solo works for various instruments. Together with a number of chamber works for different constellations, this disc sums up Kalevi Aho's oboe project, in expert performances by Piet Van Bockstal, supported by the pianist Yutaka Oya, and by Martyn Brabbins conducting the Lahti Symphony Orchestra, for which Aho has composed so much of his music.

Classical Music

Classical Music

With 17 symphonies and 32 concertos to date, Kalevi Aho is one of today’s most prolific composers of large-scale orchestral scores. The present release brings together two works separated by 35 years, but also by the reception they have enjoyed: whereas Sieidi, the percussion concerto Aho composed in 2010, has become one of his most performed works, Symphony No. 5 from the mid-70s is a rarely heard score. Sieidi was written for Colin Currie, who has recorded it here and who performs the concerto with orchestras across the world. Its title, a word in Sami, is used in reference to the rituals and shamanism of indigenous peoples around the world, and the solo part, which makes use of nine different percussion instruments, begins and ends with the djembe and darbuka, drums usually heard in African and Arab music. The instruments are placed in a row towards the front of the stage, and during the course of the work the soloist makes his way across the platform, from the right to the left and back, reinforcing the ritualistic dimension of the piece. Currie is supported by the Lahti Symphony Orchestra under its principal conductor Dima Slobodeniouk, a team with a deep familiarity with Aho’s music. This stands them in good stead when they take on the highly complicated score of Symphony No. 5, which in places even calls for a second conductor: wishing to express the incoherence of human existence, the composer lets various, often unrelated musical events overlap, at times dividing the orchestra into two parts playing at different speeds. Composing the work was ‘an exceptional effort’ according to Aho, who adds that it left him ‘with the liberating feeling that everything was now possible – that any musical problem or crisis could be overcome.’

Finnish composer Kalevi Aho has produced a considerable and varied body of work that continues to grow rapidly. Aho first tackled the genre of string quartet at the very beginning of his composing career, more than fifty years ago, and has only recently returned to it. Aho was only 18 when he completed his String Quartet No. 1 in 1967. Self-taught at the time, Aho took his inspiration from the essentially tonal music he played on the violin or heard on the radio. The Second Quartet was composed in 1970, during his second year of studies at the Sibelius Academy in Helsinki with Einojuhani Rautavaara and uses fugue technique in each of it's movements. The first performance of the quartet received excellent reviews and marked a minor breakthrough for Aho as a composer. The Third Quartet dates from the following year and marks the end of Aho's studies with Rautavaara. In this work Aho's personal language begins to emerge, although the influence of Shostakovich can also be heard. The work was a great success and has been performed more often than any of his other chamber compositions. The three string quartets are performed here by the Stenhammar Quartet, one of Scandinavia's leading string quartets, whose extensive repertoire gives prominence to contemporary music from the Nordic countries.

Kalevi Aho needs little introduction to people familiar with the BIS label. He is, quite simply, the foremost Finnish composer of his generation as well as the most prolific. This is the ninth disc devoted exclusively to his music and he has contributed single works to numerous other CDs. Aho is unique among contemporary composers in his concern for the music of his immediate forebears and the first half of this disc consists of his homage to the composer Uno Klami (1900-1961). Klami's greatest work, the ballet score 'Whirls' (CD656), was unfinished when the composer died. He was intending to write the definitive Finish ballet based, as one would expect, on stories from Kalevala, the great poem of Finnish mythology that has inspired so much art in Finland. Kalevi Aho undertook to write the missing third act of this ballet so that the ballet could be performed in full and this was the origin of the 'Symphonic Dances' presented here. The second half of the disc comprises Aho's eleventh symphony. Several of Aho's previous symphonies have included a major part for a solo instrument. Here the 'solo' instrument consists of a huge battery of instruments performed by the six members of the Kroumata Percussion Ensemble! Once again Kalevi Aho displays his ability to get under the skin of an instrument and to communicate his insights in a musical language that is readily accessible.

Classical Music

Continuing a commitment which began in 1989, BIS has released a number of discs dedicated to the Finnish composer Kalevi Aho. These includes programmes with chamber music, but the majority involve large orchestra, performing large orchestral works. One genre favoured by Aho is that of the concerto, and the recently released recording of his Clarinet Concerto made a great impact on reviewers around the world, who described it as 'intensely lyrical, thematically memorable, and beautifully scored' (ClassicsToday.com), 'a deeply moving master-piece' (Fono Forum), and 'a chef-d'oeuvre of our time!' (Classica-Répertoire). This prolific composer is also one of today's great symphonic writers: his current work list includes no less than fourteen symphonies, and nine of these have been released on BIS, to great acclaim - upon its release in 1999, No.7 was for instance greeted as 'one of our century's great orchestral scores' by the reviewer in American Record Guide. But even within such an extraordinary body of works, Kalevi Aho's 'Symphony No.12, Luosto',holds a very special place. Written for a performance on the slopes of Mount Luosto in Finnish Lapland, it makes use of two orchestras, two vocal soloists and a number of brass players and percussionists placed at various distances from each other and the conductor, surrounding the audience. The primary inspiration for this four-movement work came from the natural surroundings and traditions of Lapland, and parts of it were actually composed during a bitterly cold spell in the solitude of a cottage at the foot of Orresokka, the mountain next to Luosto. The three-dimensional qualities written into the score makes it the perfect subject for a Surround Sound recording, and during the recording sessions in the acclaimed acoustics of the Lahti Sibelius Hall, great pains were taken to recreate the set-up of the first performance. This took place in 2003, in front of - or rather around - an audience of over 2000 people, and became the starting point of 'LuostoClassic', an annual summer music festival which in 2008 features another performance of Aho's symphony. Among the performers on the present recording, the vocal soloists, the Chamber Orchestra of Lapland and the conductor John Storgårds all took part in the première of the work. The uniqueness of the work, in terms of both sonic qualities and conception, would render any additional work meaningless in the context of a single disc, which is why it is published on its own despite the playing time of just under 50 minutes.

The partnership between BIS and Finnish composer Kalevi Aho is a most fruitful one, as our survey of this composer’s work amply demonstrates. The most recent additions to Aho’s growing discography include a massive orchestral work premiered on a mountainside – Symphony No. 12 ‘Luosto’ – and the smaller-scale but no less compelling Symphony No.14 ‘Rituaaleja’. Happily, Osmo Vänskä – who had already moved to Minnesota – returned to Finland to record the two works on this new disc. He certainly knows this composer’s sound-world better than anyone, his long relationship with the Lahti orchestra cemented by their earlier, much-praised Sibelius cycle for BIS.

This new concerto, commissioned by the Mänttä Music festival’s artistic director Niklas Pokki, was written with Finnish pianist Antti Siirala in mind. Unaccountably I’ve not heard this soloist before, although he’s already collected a clutch of major awards. So, how does he fare, and how does this 21st-century concerto sound? It’s rather intimate – the pianist is accompanied by just 20 string players – and on first acquaintance the quicksilver writing reminded me of Prokofiev. That did surprise me, as the composer’s liner-notes make mention of Siirala’s prowess in a rather different musical tradition, that of Beethoven, Liszt and Brahms. However, that apparent dichotomy is soon resolved, with writing – and playing – that will certainly bring that illustrious trio to mind.

The three movements, played without a break, have a wonderful; rhapsodic character, the BIS engineers capturing Siirala’s warm, natural pianism very well indeed. And yes, even though one might detect a Brahmsian flavour at times – sample the passage that begins at 3:00 – there’s a strong, very individual voice here, any stylistic snatches welded into an entirely original and convincing whole. As for the strings, they soften the music’s edges, bringing out a wonderful sense of wistfulness in quieter passages. Just sample the gentle rain of sound that Siirala conjures up at 7:59 in the second movement, the string playing that follows Straussian in its weight and quiet stoicism. The Lahti forces are glorious, full, warm and beautifully blended.

And while the final movement strikes a distinctly Brahms/Beethoven pose at the start, the quirkier writing that follows seem closer to Prokofiev. Siirala delights in the glittering melodies, which he dashes off with aplomb, the strings adding their strange, tangential harmonies to the mix. This concerto is both elusive and refreshing; also it’s piqued my interest in this most talented pianist, who I’d especially like to hear in core 19th- and 20th-century repertoire.

Symphony No. 13, commissioned to celebrate the fifth anniversary of Lahti’s Sibelius Hall, makes use of the building’s unique acoustics. In his liner-notes Aho points out that various instruments are directed to play in the lighting gallery, the echo chambers and the choir. Listeners may remember he experimented with instruments and singers in the same hall in an effort to reproduce the spatial effects of ‘Luosto’, his outdoor symphony. Speaking of subtitles, the 13th has one too, ‘Symphonic Characterizations’. Cast in two movements, it depicts a range of human traits. Again, listeners may be reminded of the composer’s anthropomorphic ~ and highly entertaining – Insect Symphony (No. 7).

The different instrumental placements and varying acoustics, evident from the outset, probably work very well in the hall itself, but I’m not convinced the intended effects are that apparent here. Perhaps this would have sounded more striking as a multi-channel SACD – as was the case with ‘Luosto’. That said, there’s no denying the sinewy orchestration and constant momentum of the piece, which yokes together a whole range of conflicting moods – imperioso, semplice, malinconico, aristocratico, morbido and calcolatore. It’s an interesting conceit, but listeners may feel – as I do – that these labels aren’t pivotal to one’s enjoyment of the symphony as a whole.

Once again, I was struck by the composer’s economy of style, which creates music of chamber-like lucidity and concentration. The allure lies not so much in the overall picture but in the daubs that make up this larger orchestral canvas. In some ways the work’s discrete inner dialogues make it seem more like a concerto for orchestra than a symphony. Even in the second movement, with its emphasis on baser emotions, the percussion and brass are sparingly used, the various instrumental colours and timbres captured with commendable crispness and clarity. Just listen to the shimmering tam-tam at 5:00, it’s so wonderfully tactile.

New Aho recordings are always a cause for celebration, and this one is no exception. Of the two works here the concerto probably has the broadest appeal; it’s inventive without being perverse, and effortlessly tuneful without ever sounding anodyne. Many of the same qualities come through in the symphony as well, but if you really want to hear this composer at the height of his powers I’d suggest you try the more recent Symphony No. 14.

Not the best introduction to this discreet, ever-fascinating composer’s œuvre – the early symphonies would be a better place to start – but a must-hear for those who already own the other works in this excellent cycle.

-- Dan Morgan, MusicWeb International

'My apotheosis of the dance' is how Kalevi Aho describes his Symphony No.15. With two dance movements and rhythm a central element, the score calls for numerous percussion instruments, including non-Western ones such as bongos, darbuka, djembe and the riqq, an Arabian tambourine. The composer's interest in non-Western music and instruments has been evident in several recent works, such as his Symphony No. 14 (recorded on BIS-1686) and Oboe Concerto (BIS-1876). It also played an important part during the creation of Minea, composed as a concert opener for the Minnesota Orchestra on the initiative of Osmo Vänskä, who also conducts the work here. Mentioning Indian ragas, Japanese shakuhachi music, Arabian rhythms and Eastern scales, Aho explains that his aim has been to expand his own sound world with elements of other classical music cultures, and to try to view the Western musical tradition from other perspectives. Minea and Symphony No.15 frame the composer's Concerto for Double Bass, composed in 2005 for Eero Munter. In order to be able to write idiomatically for the instrument, the composer borrowed a double bass, and as work on the piece progressed, he actually grew proficient enough to try out most of the solo part - albeit at a very slow tempo, as he freely admits! The concerto offers the opportunity to hear the solo instrument in highly unusual contexts, for instance in the two accompanied cadenzas - the first a pizzicato duet with the harp, and the second a trio with two percussionists. Throughout the disc we hear the Lahti Symphony Orchestra, which for more than 20 years has made a remarkable commitment to the composer, performing and recording a large number of his works. The orchestra is conducted by Jaakko Kuusisto and Dima Slobodeniouk, as well as by the above-mentioned Osmo Vänskä.

Given Sibelius’s reputation as one of the great symphonists of the last century, contemporary Finnish composers may be forgiven for feeling a little overshadowed. Fortunately for the young Aho, Rautavaara’s advice and support proved decisive in shaping this symphony, which began life as a string quartet. The work is in four movements, the mysterious opening and ascending brass figures of the Andante strongly reminiscent of Shostakovich. Indeed, this is confirmed by the noted music publisher Fennica Gehrman, in a short article on the Finnish Musical Information Centre website.

There is no obvious programme here, but in his refreshingly unpretentious liner-notes – a welcome feature of this entire cycle – Aho does speak of ‘nightmares’ and ‘psychological crises’. Even without these pointers the Andante has a certain bleakness – desolation, even – although there’s none of the trenchancy one associates with Shostakovich in similar mood. That said the grim little waltz in the Allegretto could so easily be attributed to DSCH, not to mention the quiet but insistent tread in the lower strings.

By contrast the Presto kicks off with an arresting moto perpetuo that drives this fugue like a musical dynamo. This movement has some of the most individual writing so far. That said the shade of Shostakovich hovers nearby, the laconic waltz tune and a splintered remnant of the opening theme bringing the symphony to an enigmatic close.

The other works on this disc – Hiljaisuus (Silence) and the Violin Concerto – date from the early 1980s. According to Aho, Hiljaisuus, a Finnish Radio commission that was to last no more than five minutes, was intended as an introduction to the recently completed Violin Concerto. It’s a strange swirl of a piece, a mix of unsettling glissandos and unearthly sonorities. Sample the short passage at 4:02 and you may be forgiven for thinking you’re listening to Ligeti.

The Violin Concerto has more momentum and contrast than Hiljaisuus, although it shares the latter’s concentrated, more dissonant idiom. It isn’t the most grateful start to a violin concerto, the solo part – sensitively played by Manfred Gräsbeck – rather less prominent than one might expect. That said it would be difficult to hear it above the orchestral eruptions that punctuate the first movement. At 8:30 the soloist is given some insistent phrases that rise above muted timps, culminating in an equally restrained close.

The repeated phrases at the start of the second movement – marked Leggiero – lead into music that fluctuates between light and shade. The soloist has some rhapsodic passages all to himself before we plunge into the spectral waltz of the finale. La Valse this isn’t, but the wild, somewhat demonic element is certainly present. Gräsbeck phrases these tunes like a Mahlerian Ländler – listen to the passage beginning at 3:37 – before he is crushed by a massive orchestral climax worthy of Bartók in Miraculous Mandarin mode.

Whatever hints there may be of other sound worlds Aho has fashioned something altogether individual here, combining a range of ear-pricking sonorities with music of considerable punch and power. Nothing quite prepares one for the gentle, introspective close to this concerto which, as I have discovered, is something of an Aho trademark.

Despite its obvious influences the symphony is remarkably assured for a student work. It’s economically scored, light on its feet and direct in its appeal, the chamber-like qualities much enhanced by the airy recording. The concerto is more roughly hewn; it’s a protracted tussle between soloist and orchestra, yet it has real presence and power. All credit to the Lahti Symphony Orchestra – just 40 years old when this recording was made – who play these scores with commitment and care. An excellent entrée to Aho’s distinctive sound world.

-- Dan Morgan, MusicWeb International

This disc is very BIS. It brings together several extraordinary talents in a programme that skillfully links together the old and the new. The unifying factor is Kalevi Aho - the leading compoer of his generation in Finland. It features his third symphony - Sinfonia concertante for violin and orchestra. Jaakko Kuusisto, the leading Finnish violinist of his generation, is the soloist. The other work on this disc is Mussorgsky's song cycle 'Songs and Dances of Death' which Aho orchestrated for the great Finnish bass Martti Talvela. Here the soloist is the most fêted bass of his generation, Matti Salminen. To complete this glamorous package we have Osmo Vänskä conducting his Lahti Symphony Orchestra. The recordings were supervised by the celebrated BIS team of Robert Suff and Ingo Petry and took place in the stunning new all-wood concert hall in Lahti.

Classical Music

The prolific Finnish composer Kalevi Aho periodically undertakes large-scale compositions that showcase the full breadth of his artistic abilities. The Symphony No. 17 exemplifies this tendency, representing his most ambitious orchestral work to date. The symphony requires a substantial orchestra, incorporating less common instruments such as the lupophone, a variation of the baritone oboe, and the contraforte, an acoustically enhanced contrabassoon. The first movement, "From the Deep", which can also be performed as an independent symphonic poem, establishes a somber and profound atmosphere. The second movement, "Scherzo macabre", suggests a macabre dance of death. The finale, "Distant Songs", features musical shifts that evoke distant times, dances, and songs, before ultimately returning to the present. Following it's triumphant premi�re in 2019, the symphony was immediately hailed as a magnum opus within Kalevi Aho's oeuvre.

Classical Music

Hugely prolific as well as widely acclaimed, Kalevi Aho has composed 30 concertos to date. Many of them are available in recordings from BIS, and the present release features two works from the past decade. The Concerto for Trombone and Orchestra was commissioned for Jörgen van Rijen, who also performs it here. The concerto is actually Aho’s second concertante piece for the trombone – his Symphony No. 9 (1994) included a substantial and very virtuosic solo part for the instrument. In that work, and even more so in the concerto, the composer’s aim has been to extend the expressive and virtuosic possibilities of the trombone. Composed around the same time, the Trumpet Concerto is scored for the wind section of a medium-sized symphony orchestra, plus two saxophones, baritone horn and percussion. It was given its premiere by the same musicians that perform it here, the Antwerp Symphony Orchestra under Martyn Brabbins supporting its principal trumpet Alain De Rudder in what is often a surprisingly jazzy work.

Known particularly for his orchestral output – 16 symphonies and 21 concertos to date! – the Finnish composer Kalevi Aho was recently described in Gramophone as having ‘a strong claim to the title of greatest living symphonist’. But as followers of the ongoing releases of his music on BIS will know, Aho has also composed a large number of works for smaller forces – quartets and quintets, duos and solo pieces. On the present disc, the Finnish pianist Sonja Fräki presents his output for solo piano, comfortably fitting on one disc, but nevertheless spanning some 30 years of a long career. The disc in fact opens with Aho’s earliest published work, the Nineteen Preludes from 1965-68, written before the composer had begun any formal studies of either composition or the piaNo.There is even a first version of Prelude No.8 dating from 1963, when Kalevi Aho was in his early teens and was just beginning to teach himself the piano, writing music intended mainly as practice pieces for his own use. Since then Aho has composed for other budding pianists – the Two Easy Piano Pieces for Children and the Sonatina – but as in much of his other music, the works for piano display his characteristic fascination with the virtuosic and technically brilliant side of music-making. On the present disc, this quality comes to the fore in the Sonata, with its sparkling first movement and percussive, toccata-like second movement followed by a searching Tranquillo molto, characterized by a trill which continues almost without interruption throughout the movement. Commissioned as a set piece for a piano competition, Solo II is likewise a challenge for any pianist, and forms part of a series of big (roughly ten-minute) solo works for various instruments, of which several have been recorded by BIS.

Classical Music

As the talented young Spanish pianist Miguel Baselga mentions in this release's excellent booklet notes, there's a considerable gap between much of Isaac Albéniz's salon-like piano output and the labyrinthine originality of Iberia's four books. For this reason, the pianist is allotting one book from Iberia per release in his ongoing complete Albéniz cycle for BIS. The project's second installment improves upon its predecessor in that Baselga truly is making this music his own. His assertive, communicative virtuosity uncovers all the poetic layers interwoven throughout Iberia Book Two's technical hurdles. Similarly, the pianist makes a cogent case for the composer's slighter but utterly charming, neo-Lisztian Seven Studies in the Natural Minor Keys. Baselga's fanciful yet tender treatments of the two salon mazurkas (Amalia and Ricordatti) and the evocative 1897 Souvenirs are absolute delights. The disc concludes with the wild and wooly La Vega, whose elemental impressionism sizzles under Baselga's hot hands. All the music on this disc conveys as full a scope of Albéniz's artistic development as can be contained on one CD. In sum, a disc guaranteed to perk up anyone's piano collection. --Jed Distler, ClassicsToday.com

Alicia De Larrocha may just have met her match.

The Luxembourg-born pianist Miguel Baselga has now recorded six well-regarded discs of solo piano music by Albéniz, the latest of which includes works for piano and orchestra. In typical BIS fashion the band chosen is the Tenerife Symphony, which celebrates its 75 ^th anniversary this year, under Shanghai-born Lü Jia. This strategy of employing little-known ensembles is a risky one, but in the case of the Singapore Symphony it paid off handsomely. Indeed, the latter’s Seascapes was one of my Recordings of the Year for 2007. Kees Bakels and the Malaysian Philharmonic’s Rimsky-Korsakov collection (BIS-CD-1667) is just as desirable, proof - if it were needed - that second-rank need not mean second-rate.
 
Rapsodia Española, originally written for two pianos and usually heard in one of several versions for piano and orchestra, is presented here in a completion by Spanish musicologist Jacinto Torres. Both the band and soloist make a striking impression in the brooding first bars of the piece, Baselga wonderfully fluent and rhythmically sophisticated. The piano sound is warm and detailed, the bass especially well caught, the brief orchestral tuttis suitably powerful. But it’s the soloist who really impresses, with rollicking rhythms and variegated colours. Yes, the orchestra is a little uncouth at times, but they certainly add terrific swing to the demonic dance that begins at 10:17.
 
An intoxicating start to this recital, and an ideal curtain raiser to the glitter and glitz of the unfinished Navarra, presented here in a version by Spanish pianist Pilar Bayona. One usually hears the somewhat anodyne orchestration by Déodat de Séverac - as played in the recently reviewed Ansermet reissue from Eloquence - but whichever version one prefers there’s no denying the virtuosity of this one. Baselga is simply dazzling, producing bright cascades of sound that will surely gladden the hearts of all Lisztians. As the late Paul Shoemaker remarked in his review of Volume 5, this is pianism of the highest order, and very well recorded to boot.
 
The Piano Sonata No. 5 also has strong links to the virtuoso pianist-composers of the 19 ^th-century; in his liner-notes Jean-Paul Vachon characterises the opening Allegro as Schumannesque, although its reach and cool, free-flowing harmonies seem closer to Chopin at times. As for the tiny Minuet, it’s anything but a genteel interlude; indeed, Baselga despatches it with devilish glee. The real gem, though, is the ensuing Rêverie, with its nod to the north. There’s an ease to the playing here, a command, that’s most impressive, the music’s pointilliste elements rendered with great precision and inner feeling. As for the final Allegro, rhythms are superbly articulated, the BIS engineers conveying the crystalline quality of Baselga’s playing without allowing the sound to harden or become brittle.
 
Albéniz looks back to an earlier century - the 18 ^th - with the Troisième Suite ancienne, whose Minuet and Gavotte are played with a genuine feel for late Baroque style and proportions. The latter is especially fine, the bones of the stately dance fleshed out with writing of great lucidity and charm. As for Azulejos - another unfinished work, this time completed by Enrique Granados - Baselga uncovers a remarkable amount of detail and colour, the music’s gentle ebb and flow adroitly managed. Daringly, he has replaced Granados’s ending with one of his own; it’s seamlessly done, the piece ending with the lightest of flourishes.
 
The brighter acoustic of the Auditorio de Tenerife - not such an issue in the Rapsodia - is something of a disappointment after the warm, velvety sound captured in the Auditorio y palacio de congresos, Zaragoza. The orchestral sound is certainly a tad aggressive, but at least the piano is well placed in the mix. Baselga seems fractionally less involved in this concerto, although as always detail and colour are high on his list of musical priorities. Rêverie is a real joy, even if the orchestral interjections are a little coarse. And despite some delectable rhythms in the closing Allegro, I feel the band is the weakest element here.
 
Ironically, Miguel Baselga first registered on my radar when I heard that his recording of Manuel de Falla’s Pour le tombeau de Couperin (BIS-CD-773) was passed off as a performance by the infamous Joyce Hatto. A compliment of sorts, I suppose, but anyone listening to this new disc will recognise Baselga as a pianist of great range and sophistication. So, even though Alicia De Larrocha will always be favoured in this repertoire, she may just have met her match.  

-- Dan Morgan, MusicWeb International

If at least some part of Isaac Albéniz' music may justifiably be described as 'salon music', this is not something that the composer would have objected to. Quite the opposite: he was himself very much a man of the salon, especially in his youth in the 1880s, which is when most of the pieces on Miguel Baselga's new disc were composed. It was in the salons of Madrid that he recruited new pupils among the young ladies of the bourgeoisie, performed his latest compositions and, presumably, had a good time in general. And although his greatest work - the four books that make up Iberia - was composed much later, in Paris, Albéniz never disassociated himself from the earlier works: 'There are among them a few things that are not completely worthless', he once remarked, '... there is less musical science, less of the grand idea, but more colour, sunlight, flavour of olives.' It was in the 1880s that a strong influence of Spanish style becomes evident in his music, as a result of the influence of the teacher and composer Felipe Pedrell. Folk music, especially that of Andalusia, and the characteristic idiom of Spanish guitar music make themselves felt in compositions such as Zaragoza and Sevilla, the two pieces published in 1890 as Seconde Suite espagnole. Other works on this disc are of a more 'international' character, for instance Les Saisons, Albéniz' own 'Four Seasons': four miniatures in an almost impressionistic style. Also included is the transcription, published in 2009, of one of the three improvisations that Albéniz recorded on a phonograph roll in 1903, permitting us a unique peek into the composer's creative mind.

The piano works by Isaac Albeníz range from indisputable masterpieces to highly enjoyable salon music, the composer painting with bright Spanish colours as well as the hues of Classicism or Romanticism. On eight previous volumes, Miguel Baselga has guided listeners through the music of his compatriot, earning acclaim from reviewers worldwide: ‘pianism of the highest order’ (MusicWeb-International); ‘berauschend agil und rhytmisch spannungsgeladen’ (PIANONews); ‘un pianista elegante y refinado’ (CD Compact). With the assistance of Albeníz scholar Jacinto Torres, Baselga has been able to access rare editions and scores, and his exhaustive series includes the Marcha militar by a nine-year-old Albeníz (Vol. 7), as well as the four books that make up the celebrated Iberia (Vols. 1-4) and the composer's only two scores for piano and orchestra (Vol. 6). On the present disc Baselga offers us the chance to hear the last of the three Improvisations, transcribed from a phonograph recording made by Albeníz in 1903. A large part of the programme is from the late 1880s, however, a period during which the composer was a fixture at the fashionable salons of Madrid, and composed works in which the influence of composers such as Mendelssohn, Schumann and Chopin is often evident. Recuerdos de viaje, one of the best-known works from the period, nevertheless displays the Spanish flavours that were to become one of the distinguishing features of the music of Isaac Albeníz.

The piano works by Isaac Albéniz range from indisputable masterpieces to ravishing salon music, the composer painting with bright Spanish colors as well as the hues of Classicism and Romanticism. On nine discs, originally released between 1998 and 2017 and gathered here, Miguel Baselga guides listeners through the music of his compatriot, earning acclaim from reviewers worldwide: ‘pianism of the highest order’ (MusicWeb-International); ‘berauschend agil und rhytmisch spannungsgeladen’ (PIANONews); ‘un pianista elegante y refinado’ (CD Compact). Composed between December 1905 and January 1908, only a year before the death of Albéniz, Iberia is the crowning achievement of the composer’s genius. Marking a high point of the post-romantic piano literature, this collection of ‘12 nouvelles impressions’ was to serve as an endless source of inspiration for other composers throughout the twentieth century, admired by Debussy and Messiaen, who called it 'the marvel of the piano'. Baselga’s exhaustive series places Iberia in its proper context, and with the assistance of Albéniz scholar Jacinto Torres, he has been able to access original editions and scores, including rarities such as the Marcha militar by a nine-year-old Albéniz and the composer's two scores for piano and orchestra. We are also given the opportunity to hear three improvisations, transcribed from a phonograph recording made by the composer in 1903.

REVIEW:

Miguel Baselga was the first and (I believe) only pianist to have recorded Albéniz’s complete solo piano works, a project encompassing nine CDs. The cycle has been reissued in a boxed set, together with each individual release’s original booklet. It remains a significant catalog milestone.

As a stylist, Albéniz covered all bases, from unabashedly salon-like trifles and flashy neo-Lisztian fare to the Iberia Suite’s astonishing originality and labyrinthine complexities. Since Baselga wanted each disc to represent different aspects of Albéniz’s musical personality, he cunningly divided Iberia’s four parts across the first four volumes, aiming to give lesser-known masterpieces like the wild and woolly La Vega and tender Barcarola Op. 202 their due.

The two concerted works (the Piano Concerto No. 1 and Rapsodia Espanola) also receive impressively fresh and well-balanced readings. And for those who can’t get past the faded sound of Albéniz’s three 1903 improvisations preserved on private cylinders, Milton Laufer’s painstakingly notated editions will be revelations, especially in Baselga’s inspired hands.

In all, Baselga’s combination of technical brilliance, exuberant temperament, and tonal imagination yields consistently idiomatic and enjoyable results. A must-have for serious aficionados of Spanish piano music.

– ClassicsToday.com (Jed Distler)

Born in 1972, Albert Schnelzer has established himself as one of the most successful contemporary Swedish composers. Taking inspiration from both dance and literature, he writes music that has been described as pulsating with feverish tension and vibrating rhythms, outgoing but with room for fragile and lyrically expressive moments. The three works gathered here were composed between 2011 and 2014, with two multi-movement works flanking the single-movement Tales from Suburbia. The work is inspired by the idea of suburbs embodying the transition between countryside and urbanity, where the organic world of nature contrasts with concrete structures and where past meets present. Framing Tales from Suburbia are two concertos, one for cello and one for orchestra, which both owe a debt to the rock band Pink Floyd’s iconic album Dark Side of the Moon. The work titles – Crazy Diamond and Brain Damage – are both borrowed from the album tracklist, and the individual movements carry titles taken from the lyrics. As Schnelzer himself explains in his liner notes, he hasn’t used any actual musical quotations but the lyrics have provided catalysts for his own music. In the cello concerto his focus has been on the fate of Syd Barrett, one of the founder members of Pink Floyd who was forced to leave the band due to deteriorating mental health. Brain Damage – Concerto for Orchestra on the other hand can be seen in terms of wandering through a series of different moods: anger, frustration, grief and perhaps even a glimpse of hope.

For the first four years of their marriage, Robert and Clara Schumann kept a joint diary, a project which Robert described as ‘a record of our wishes and our hopes, and the means whereby we may convey to one another any requests we may have to make, for which words may not suffice...’ In the imaginative recital Album für die Frau, Carolyn Sampson and Joseph Middleton combine songs by both composers into something similar – the depiction of a relationship seen through the eyes of both parties. Using the eight songs from Robert’s song cycle Frauenliebe und –leben to poems by Adalbert von Chamisso as the framework, they add songs as well as some piano solos in order to create a fuller and more complex picture. The result seems to suggest that the experiences of our ‘Frau’ are richer than Chamisso and Robert Schumann imagined: while love, marriage and motherhood dominated much of Clara Schumann’s life, Robert’s death in 1856 signaled the start of a four-decade widowhood during which she resumed her stellar career as a pianist. As a team, Carolyn Sampson and Joseph Middleton have released a number of acclaimed discs, including ‘Fleurs’, featuring flower-themed songs by composers from Purcell to Richard Strauss and Britten, ‘A Verlaine Songbook’, exploring settings of the poetry of Paul Verlaine, and ‘A Soprano’s Schubertiade’, a Schubert anthology.

REVIEW:

Amid formidable recorded competition, Sampson is close to the top of the Frauenliebe pantheon. It is high time Joseph Middleton made an album of solo Schumann piano music.

– Gramophone

Pianist Nicolas Stavy, who has already made recordings devoted to works by Boris Tishchenko (BIS-2189) and Dmitri Shostakovich (BIS-2550), now presents the first instalment of a complete survey of Alfred Schnittke's compositions for solo piano. This recording presents works from various periods of the Russian-German composer's career - from the 1950s, which the composer described as the 'years of obscurity', to the 1990s, a time shaped both by world fame and serious illness. While Schnittke wrote relatively little music for the piano, each work reflects - or sometimes anticipates - the phases of the composer's creative development. The Five Preludes and Fugue and the Prelude and Fugue belong to Schnittke's first creative phase, when he was still under the influence of Shostakovich. The Little Piano Pieces, composed for the composer's six-year-old son, are an example of his 'polystylism', juxtaposing and combining music of various styles from the past and present. The Sonata No. 2 and the Five Aphorisms, both from 1990, return to a more ascetic and abstract language, with a bleaker tone, no doubt echoing his serious health problems.

Classical Music

Classical Music

Charles-Valentin Alkan made his name as pianist in nineteenth-century Paris and seemed poised for a glittering career. But following a series of setbacks he withdrew into a life of relative seclusion, and as he receded from the public eye, so too did his music. It was never entirely forgotten, but it was not until the 1960s and 1970s that Alkan’s works began to emerge from obscurity. To quote the liner notes by Paul Wee, ‘Alkan’s music exhibits a formidable grasp of form and structure, a strong command of melody, a high sense of drama and an unprecedented exploitation of the capabilities of the piano.’ Combined here on one disc – possibly for the first time – are the Symphony and the Concerto for Solo Piano, two pinnacles of Alkan’s legacy. Unusually, the four movements of the Symphony and the three movements of the Concerto are included as seven etudes within Alkan’s Douze etudes dans tous les tons mineurs (Twelve studies in all the minor keys), in 1857 as his Op.?39. As to why Alkan composed these epic works and then hid them away in a set of etudes, Wee suggests that they are to be seen as ‘a celebration of the piano and its capabilities.’ Paul Wee is a barrister specialising in commercial law and appears regularly before courts and tribunals on behalf of clients including governments, corporations, financial institutions and individuals. Born in Australia, he began his piano studies at the age of four, continuing them in New York City at the Manhattan School of Music. Going on to study law at the University of Oxford, he attempts to balance his love for the piano alongside the demands of a busy international career in law.

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REVIEWS:

The fourth through the seventh of Alkan’s Twelve Etudes in the Minor Keys Op. 39 comprise his Symphony for Solo Piano, while Etudes 8 through 10 represent the more daunting Concerto for Solo Piano. They require a pianist who possesses transcendental technical prowess, the stamina of a marathon runner, a sure command of large-scale structure, rhythmic élan, and a large portfolio of nuance and color. Paul Wee is precisely this pianist and more.

He creates the impression of tonal mass, yet his shaping of individual lines within thick textures imparts a welcome horizontal vantage point to the piano writing. In the Symphony’s second movement, for example, listen to Wee’s thoughtfully contoured interaction between the legato cantabile detached chords. His Presto finale zooms from the gate like a bat out of hell, yet the pianist’s staggeringly accurate fingers never even hint at potential derailment.

Likewise, Wee brings a playful audacity and airborne lilt to the Concerto’s aggressive quasi-bolero third movement that contrasts to the relatively suaver reserve of Marc-André Hamelin’s equally astonishing pianism. And Wee’s timbral contrasts in the long first movement bring out the music’s solo/tutti perspectives in true orchestral fashion with no more than ten fingers, although one could swear that an extra pair of hands sneaks in to help out every now and then.

Wee’s achievement is all the more unbelievable when you consider that he is not a professional pianist, but a highly successful international commercial London-based lawyer! One should mention, too, Wee’s superb booklet notes and BIS’ world-class production values. To call this disc an auspicious solo recording debut is an understatement. Better to describe it with a single word: WOW!

– ClassicsToday (Jed Distler)

What is almost incredible is that the soloist Paul Wee is not a professional pianist but a highly successful international commercial London lawyer. The precision of his attack, the clarity of the part-playing, the linear focus and structural grasp of each movement of the Symphony are quite thrilling to experience...The spontaneity and drive of his playing smash the sterile confines of the studio.

– Gramophone