Time flies with Lindberg

Commissioned to celebrate the centenary of Finland's independence, Magnus Lindberg's orchestral work Tempus Fugit (2016–2017) was premiered on 6 December 2017 by The Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra under Hannu Lintu and recorded for Ondine during the following days. The results are mighty entertaining. Lindberg makes use of characteristic stepwise harmonic progressions and a gorgeously bright orchestration, with brass fanfares and outbursts of solo piano. Associations go to Debussy, while the composer himself has compared the ending with Mussorgsky's The Great Gate of Kiev. 

Lindberg wrote his Violin Concerto No. 2 for Frank Peter Zimmermann, who was the soloist in the first performance in London in 2015 and now excels on the recording. The violin takes on an assertive role right from the beginning of the three-movement work, and the orchestra is an alert companion, its material broadening and enriching the soloist's part. The recurring romantic motif is almost intolerably catchy.

LINDBERG: Tempus fugit, Violin Concerto No. 2
Frank Peter Zimmermann (violin), Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra, cond. Hannu Lintu 

Ondine ODE 1308-5