Geoff Brown
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Finnish music dedicated to two Finnish musicians, conducted and played on a Finnish label by other Finnish musicians: that's this disc's bill of fare. But it's not just national feelings that band Finns together; these days the country's classical musicians belong to the world's elite. As conducted by Sakari Oramo, the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra mixes precision with roaring exuberance. As for Magnus Lindberg (pictured below), he might lack the individual genius of Sibelius but he's still a giant among his contemporaries: a composer of uncommon panache, famous for orchestral pieces targeted for big public display, not miniature examination in a laboratory.
This latest Lindberg release from Ondine contains two recent sonic blockbusters: the Concerto for Orchestra, written for Jukka-Pekka Saraste and the BBC Symphony Orchestra, and Sculptures, a showpiece for Esa-Pekka Salonen, the Los Angeles Philharmonic and the Frank Gehry architecture of the Walt Disney Concert Hall in LA, unveiled in 2003. There's a distinct family resemblance, apparent too in the smaller work, a horn concerto, Campana in aria, wedged in between. In all three works, Lindberg's playing with space, using as toys and building blocks musical gestures, often declamatory, and unusual sonorities arrayed in rows.
And the organising logic? Certainly not counterpoint or dry mathematics. Lindberg's scores grow, heave and sometimes vomit like a rude force of nature. That's one reason for his flood of commissions and public appeal.
As this disc races on, in glorious sound, it's also the reason why you might sometimes itch for music that's tauter, more argumentative, less grandiloquent. In the orchestral concerto, after 13 minutes of fanfare figures eating each other, what a relief when the slow section arrives featuring chamber delicacy and a solo flute. For all the effulgence of Lindberg's gifts and his mastery of orchestral forces, the word monotony occasionally comes to mind.
Yet Lindberg's energy never dies, and a surprising turn is rarely far away: maybe the Wagner tubas of Sculpture growling from the ocean floor, or Esa Tapani's horn acrobatics in the highest register, or the bouncing calls and responses that turn your living room into its own Gehry space. Play this sumptuous and teeming CD when the neighbours are away; better still, invite them in to listen. (Ondine, TS £13.99)
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