classical/contemporary reviews 2017

It is difficult to imagine a more interesting premise: the Kamus Quartet, who have been in the same lineup since the group was established, playing suave and energetic chamber music by Esa-Pekka Salonen, György Ligeti and Benjamin Britten.

Sallinen’s orchestrations are a miracle of restraint, somehow managing to sound entirely appropriate without mimicking Sibelius’s own style: his textures are lighter, with less ‘middle’, and little flashes of colour from winds, brass and harp all bringing an invigorating freshness.

Here’s a bold idea, and a bold choice of repertoire, and it largely works – although I found it more rewarding to concentrate on one work at a time rather than listen through in a single session, even with the multitracked rhythmic jollity of Steve Reich’s New York Counterpoint to bring variety to the sound of solo clarinet. The trouble is that almost all the pieces follow the same basic premise.

When the Ostrobothnian Chamber Orchestra brings together some of the works that over the years have been dedicated to the orchestra’s long-standing Artistic Director and now Honorary Conductor Juha Kangas, it is obviously going to be a collection of emotionally and expressively powerful and excellent music – pieces tailor-made for the orchestra’s deep-rooted sound and intense music-making.

Nature is among the most common topics in music of all eras. Matthew Whittall’s nature-composing continues this tradition with strong nostalgic tones.

​Ives’s Concord Sonata often requires its performer to despatch inhuman quantities of notes at superhuman speed, but Ahonen scoops them up like a kid building sandcastles, with no loss of clarity or of dynamic or rhythmic control.

Selim Palmgren was congratulated after the premiere of his Piano Concerto No. 5 (1942) by a personage no less than Sibelius himself, and listening to Alba’s new release of Palmgren’s complete piano concertos it is easy to understand why.

Outi Tarkiainen has long since learned the lessons of her chosen poets: to be true to oneself. That results in outstanding music of meticulous clarity and frequent emotional strain. It needs heartfelt and considered performances, and gets them here.

Olli Virtaperko’s music is like the missing third dimension of an abstract painting. His great sense of timbre is exemplified in this recording of concertos for unusual solo instruments.