Cosmopolitan heroes
MAGNUS LINDBERG
Violin Concerto, Jubilees, Souvenir
Pekka Kuusisto (violin), Tapiola Sinfonietta, cond. Magnus Lindberg
Ondine ODE-1175-2
Magnus Lindberg began his musical career as a bit of a poltergeist and gradually morphed into an intercontinental cosmopolitan composer of the 2000s, embracing consonance and urban groove without compromising his modernist sensibilities.
Under the composer’s baton, Souvenir (2010) reveals itself as a homage to its inspirations, Franco Donatoni and Gerard Grisey, but the chamber music solos, rhythmic gestures and sonorities come across as souvenirs of far-off lands, foreign cities and the history of music too. The Tapiola Sinfonietta is perhaps capable of an even broader palette than this, but it is difficult to argue with the composer’s interpretation of his own work.
Pekka Kuusisto astounds the listener once again with his agility in Lindberg’s Violin Concerto (2006), a virtuoso work that is one of his most successful scores. Kuusisto leads and the orchestra follows with equal precision, weaving filigree details in sharp relief. The violin takes on a heroic role in the extended solo cadenza in the second movement and in the explosive finale.
Translation: Jaakko Mäntyjärvi