Al Largo Archive

LINDBERG: Al Largo; Cello Concerto No. 2 – Era-Anssi Karttunen, cello – Finnish Radio Sym. Orch./ Hannu Lintu – Ondine

by Audiophile Audition | Apr 23, 2016 | SACD & Other Hi-Res Reviews

Brilliantly-orchestrated modern tonal music from Finnish master Magnus Lindberg. MAGNUS LINDBERG: Al Largo; Cello Concerto No. 2 – Era-Anssi Karttunen, cello – Finnish Radio Sym. Orch./ Hannu Lintu – Ondine multichannel SACD ODE 12118-5, 66:28 [Distr. by Naxos] *****: If you’re looking for orchestral music that’s dramatic, harmonically lucid, gloriously colorful, exuberant and powerfully immediate, this disc is for you. Finnish composer, conductor and pianist Magnus Lindberg (b. 1958) has written music of enormous stylistic diversity in his 37-year career. The music on this CD is a far cry from his avant-garde beginning. Although all Finnish composers bear the imprint of Jean Sibelius, Lindberg absorbed the influence of the European avant-garde (Stockhausen) as well as Finnish composers Rautavaara and Heininen at the Sibelius Academy. In 1980 he founded the avant-garde Ears Open Society with colleagues Esa Pekka Salonen, Kaija Saariaho and others and wrote the influential Kraft, (1983-85), a large orchestral work that included percussion on scrap metal and spoken word. Later works included aspects of minimalism, free jazz, progressive rock and East Asian music. His most popular work was the Clarinet Concerto (2002), a folk-inspired work that demonstrates his virtuosic and opulent orchestral skills. He believes that the orchestra […]