We are very fortunate to now have so many fine recordings of the influential and monumental Nielsen clarinet concerto available. I count fully nineteen now in print and obtainable, though I have to admit that the recording on the Caprice label on a CD called “Nordic Clarinet Concertos” by Karin Dornbusch and also Stanley Drucker’s wonderful classic issue with Bernstein on Sony stand heads and tails above all the rest. Sabine Meyer, in a review by me recently on this site also scores high in this work, Sir Simon Rattle’s not-quite-up-to-par understanding of the piece the only detriment. But then comes along this fabulous performance by Swedish player Martin Frost, and he easily adds a third to my top two.
Forget the fact that his technical bedazzlement sweeps the field with ease; and forget that the Lahti Symphony under Minnesota Orchestra director Osmo Vanska plays this music with authority and passion; others have done the same. But couple it with sensational sound such as this warhorse has never received, clarity, a rich audio spectrum, and phenomenal dynamic range and warmth that could melt butter when needed, with the collective total mastery of this score and you have a recording for the ages. I read in another review that there is not enough combativeness in some of the snare drum passages, but this is nonsense, and surely a misunderstanding as to what Nielsen does with the snare drum in his music. It is to add a dimension of tension and rhythm, not a call to war, and on this recording everything is just fine. Will I give up Drucker and Dornbusch? Never! But read on, and you will see an even greater reason to acquire this disc with some haste.
Kalevi Aho is a composer that I have been following for years and years, ever since I first heard a Rondo for piano played by him on the late Karl Haas’s radio program Adventures in Good Music. I was stunned by the invention and energy in this work, a rolling eight minutes of high octane that left me breathless. In the intervening years (Aho is now 58, if you can believe it), I have sometimes seen the promise of those early years materialize, and other times not—most often, yes. Here, definitely. This is a concerto that is destined to take its place alongside the Nielsen, and, yes, it is that good. Aho’s music always makes sense. You might not always like what he does with his melodies or sometimes strange and exotic ways with harmony, but you nearly always comprehend what he has done. In this work he falls back into a more traditionalist manner, and the work is full of cordial, gorgeous melodic segments, along with some of the more virtuoso elements (the whole second movement is a cadenza) and some fearlessly dramatic music that alternately has your spirit soaring and reflecting nostalgically. It is a superb composition that needs to be heard by every serious music lover worthy of the name, and I can recommend this excellent recording as easily one of the best we shall hear in 2008.
— Steven Ritter
