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symphony orchestra based in Helsinki, Finland
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2024-03-19
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2024-02-29 04:30:00
Susanna Mälkki conducts Sibelius (CD Review)
by Ryan RossSibelius: Karelia Suite, Op. 11; Rakastava, Op. 14; Lemminkäinen, Op. 22. Susanna Mälkki, conductor; Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra. BIS-2638Anyone who has heard Susanna Mälkki’s performances knows that she approaches conducting with admirable precision and sensitivity. In settings where the music is especially enhanced by these attributes, she’s absolutely first-rate. In situations that call for unbridled passion, however, I’m sometimes left wanting more. This dichotomy plays out across BIS’s new disc of nationally-inflected orchestral fare by Jean Sibelius. By now all of these works have plenty of recordings in the classical catalogue, especially the Karelia Suite and Lemminkäinen Legends (or “Suite,” as it’s often called). The field isn’t nearly Beethoven Fifth-level crowded, but the bar is not exactly low either. In the music here that plays to her strengths, Mälkki and the HPO give wonderful performances. But there are parts that do not always align with her predisposition, and these (for my taste) lead to middling ventures. The […]
2024-02-09 07:55:00
Horns galore: incandescent playing from Ben Goldscheider in the London premiere of Gavin Higgins' terrific new concerto
Gavin Higgins: Horn Concerto - Ben Goldscheider, Gavin Higgins, Christopher Warren Green, London Chamber Orchestra (Photo: Jerome Weatherald)Elizabeth Maconchy: Music for Strings, Mozart: Horn Concerto No. 4, Gavin Higgins: Horn Concerto, Sibelius: Symphony No. 5; Ben Goldscheider, London Chamber Orchestra, Christopher Warren Green; Cadogan HallThe London premiere of Gavin Higgins' new concerto reveals an imaginative sound-world and satisfyingly structured work allied to incandescent playing from Ben GoldscheiderHorn player Ben Goldscheider premiered Gavin Higgins' Horn Concerto last month with Jaime Martin and BBC National Orchestra of Wales [see Ben's article on the work], but the work got a further outing on Wednesday 7 February 2024 at Cadogan Hall when Ben Goldscheider was joined by a different orchestra and conductor, the London Chamber Orchestra and Christopher Warren Green to give the work's London premiere. In what was a packed and eclectic programme, Goldscheider also was the soloist in Mozart's Horn Concerto No. 4, […]
2023-08-14 04:30:00
Rautavaara and Martinů: Piano Concertos (CD Review)
by Ryan RossRautavaara: Piano Concerto No. 3 ‘Gift of Dreams’; Martinů: Piano Concerto No. 3. Olli Mustonen, piano; Lahti Symphony Orchestra; Dalia Stasevska, conductor. BIS-2532The unexpected coupling of these two compositions is already creating some buzz for this recording. What do they and their composers at all have in common anyway? According to the liner notes by Jean-Pascal Vachon, both men “adopted an attitude free from any musical puritanism, constantly finding new sources of inspiration which they explored without taboos.” Right. But these are also both very accessible compositions in a 20th-century musical landscape where accessibility still isn’t a particularly prestigious value, even in hindsight. It was one thing for Martinů to be composing neo-Romantic music (Vachon notes his Third Concerto’s links with Brahms) as late as 1948, but what of Rautavaara cranking out works that are at once so individual and yet so unabashedly easy on the ears, decades after having […]
2023-07-07 00:00:00
Shostakovich, Sibelius, Smetana & Vaughan Williams: Orchestral Works (Paavo Berglund, Jorma Panula, Cristina Ortiz et al)
Dmitri Shostakovich:1.01 - 1.04 Symphony No. 11 in G minor, op.103 'The Year 1905' [66.30]1.05 - 1.07 Three Fantastic Dances for Piano, op.5 * [3'25]2.01 - 2.03 Symphony No. 6 in B minor, op. 54 [30'03]2.04 - 2.07 Concerto No.1 in C minor for piano, trumpet and strings, op.35 *^ [21'54]2.08 - 2.10 Piano Concerto No.2 in F major, op.102 * [19'47]Cristina Ortiz- piano*, Rodney Senior- trumpet^, Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra conducted by Paavo BerglundEMI CDS747790-8 [recorded 1975 and 1978; this compilation first issued in 1987][digital download; flacs, cover and inlay scans, booklet sourced from archive.org]Recording venue: Guildhall, Southampton, UKRecording engineer: Stuart Eltham; Producers: John Fraser and John WillanJean Sibelius:01 - 04 Symphony No. 4 in A minor, op.63 * [35'11]05 - 08 Symphony No. 5 in E-flat major, op.82 ^ [30'19]Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra conducted by Paavo Berglund*; Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Jorma Panula^Finlandia FACD004 [recorded in 1968; this […]
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