Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra

“The playing is formidable.” The Guardian, 9th May 2013 **

“Though it's all impressively put together as a fine vehicle for the soloist Leila Josefowicz, there's no suggestion of Salonen rethinking the genre, or pushing its boundaries. The second movement is brief, throbbing and slow, the third a burlesque-like scherzo, while the long finale provides the only surprise, with its sudden plunge into Berg-like introspection, a slow climb towards a massive climax” The Guardian, 4th October 2012 ***

“Salonen has a conductor’s ear for translucent, shimmering sonorities, but there’s character and substance here too.” The Times, 20th October 2012 ***

“There are so many moments of jaw-dropping loveliness in the concerto– this would be a fantastic piece to hear live. But too often the work sounds like an amalgam of exquisitely polished effects, filched from Salonen’s favourite composers...Nyx is the sort of piece we’d all love to be able to write, a delirious soundtrack for an unmade film. Salonen’s performance is as flamboyant as you’d expect.” The Arts Desk, 8th December 2012

“these performances, played with great polish and panache and recorded with a winning blend of clarity and spaciousness, provide the best possible advocacy.” Gramophone Magazine, January 2013

“Aided by a clean and unfussy recorded acoustic, Oramo and the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra bring out the work's remarkable colours and character. In the second movement one senses the Symphony's deliberate hesitations, and those moments where certainties are undermined by a curdled harmony or a baleful brass fanfare.” BBC Music Magazine, December 2012 ***

“Oramo invests the expansive opening andante [of the Fifth] and intense, emotional adagio with rare power and authority...[He] guides us through its devastated landscape with clarity and compassion.” The Observer, 16th September 2012

“The Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra partner Kriikku admirably in this enchanting concerto and under Oramo's sensitive direction provide beguiling accompaniments for Anu Komsi in the four Leino Songs...[Laterna magica] is a filigree tone-poem with a soul of steel that showcases the Finnish orchestra splendidly. Ondine's demonstration sound caps a marvellous issue.” Gramophone Magazine, December 2011

“Respighi’s grandiloquent Concerto in the Mixolydian Mode of 1925 is a magnificent testament to piano opulence, fully expounded here by Olli Mustonen...Oramo and his Finnish forces provide the finesse and atmosphere” The Telegraph, 2nd September 2010 ****

“Oramo and his Finnish players to give us a highly atmospheric reading of exemplary clarity and, in the "Trevi", powerful dramatic effect.” Gramophone Magazine, December 2010

“Fountains of Rome is wholly engrossing: this is a fine performance very well-captured.” Classic FM Magazine, January 2011 ***

“Mustonen has a genuine feel for the [Concerto's] most poetic moments and the way they fit into the greater scheme of things...Sakari Oramo would seem to be in total agreement with him, leading the magnificent Finnish Radio SO in a truly outstanding performance” International Record Review, December 2010

“Sakari Oramo and the Finnish Radio Symphony fully appreciate its opportunities for meaningful orchestral display and are accorded spacious sound that lacks nothing in impact. Sculpture makes this a mandatory purchase for Lindberg's admirers, many of whom may well find in the Concerto more than incidental pleasures.” Gramophone Magazine, February 2009

“It is Sculpture however that seems most sure of itself stylistically. Its outrageously Romantic conclusion - huge, organ-enhanced orchestra singing out in unabashed heroic tones - is convincing in the end because it has been so well prepared. The performances are bracingly clean and alert, with no holding back in the big moments, and the recording very convincingly balances clarity and atmosphere.” BBC Music Magazine, March 2009 ****

“Magnus Lindberg has been dedicated in exploring the potential of the modern orchestra, as this disc confirms. Odd that Campana in aria (1998) was unrecorded until now, as its lively investigation of horn sonority makes for the composer's most entertaining concertante piece, especially when Esa Tapani is so in control of its virtuosity.
Each decade in his maturity has seen Lindberg pen an orchestral work as a statement of intent: thus the modernist outpouring of Kraft (1985), then the reconciliation of innovation and tradition in Aura (1994). Fine that the Concerto for Orchestra (2003) is a further step along this path, but quality is simply lacking – whether in the actual ideas or, especially, the interplay of textures such that the harmonies sound derivative of earlier works, while melodic lines are insufficiently defined. Ensemble writing in the latter half fails to sustain momentum, and the apotheosis is perfunctory by Lindberg's standards.
Fortunately, Sculpture (2005) seems intent on righting its predecessor's wrongs – not least in its skilful mediating between extremes of motion without sacrificing either harmonic or textural intricacy, with a final section that fairly saturates the sound-space.
Quite a piece with which to have opened the Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles.
Sakari Oramo and the Finnish RSO fully appreciate its opportunities for meaningful orchestral display and are accorded spacious sound that lacks nothing in impact. Sculpture makes this a mandatory purchase for Lindberg's admirers, many of whom may well find in the Concerto more than incidental pleasures.” Gramophone Classical Music Guide, 2010

“…Batiashvili revels in the challenges, technical and expressive, that Lindberg has placed before her. This is a commanding first recording of a work that, in its approachability and appeal, deserves to become a modern classic” The Telegraph Classical CD of the Week

“The formidable Lisa Batiashvili plays the hugely demanding solo part with breathtaking brilliance” Sunday Times

“Still there's plenty of drama, fire and lyrical beauty in the Lindberg Concerto and the brilliant young soloist Lisa Batiashvili makes plenty of it. This is a searing performance, with strong support from the Finnish Radio Symphony… superbly recorded.” BBC Music Magazine, February 2008 *****

“…Lisa Batiashvili, whose agility and tonal sweetness serve as an ideal foil for the blinding colours on Lindberg's constantly shifting canvas. Sibelius's Concerto provides a comforting disc companion, especially as the performance so memorably focuses on the dreamier elements of the first movement. Batiashvili bows a seamless sensual line, her tone smooth as silk. Sakari Oramo conducts a cleanly detailed and warmly articulated accompaniment, stronger on pulse than on drama, and at times sounding almost like chamber music.” Gramophone Magazine, November 2007

“It's been said that Magnus Lindberg forges his works more from harmony and rhythm than from unfolding melodic lines, and the celestial acrobatics of this neatly constructed Violin Concerto, a real star-burst of a piece, tend to bear out that theory. It was premiered last year in New York, the soloist, as here, Lisa Batiashvili, whose agility and tonal sweetness serve as an ideal foil for the blinding colours on Lindberg's constantly shifting canvas. The work opens like a bright light descending, the soloist a first among equals who, beyond her brief cadenza, witnesses a gradual darkening of orchestral texture.
The harmonic complexion can be either ravishing or dissonant, and the range of musical gesture, from ethereal reverie to Bartókian dance is consistently gripping. The breathless stream of invention recalls Lindberg's similarly hyperactive Clarinet Concerto – anyone who enjoyed that work should relish this one too.
Sibelius's Concerto provides a comforting disc companion, especially as the performance so memorably focuses on the dreamier elements of the first movement. Batiashvili bows a seamless, sensual line, her tone smooth as silk. Sakari Oramo conducts a cleanly detailed and warmly articulated accompaniment, stronger on pulse than on drama, and at times sounding almost like chamber music. Those who like their Sibelius flinty or rough-hewn might find this reading just a little too civilised, though for me the joy of hearing everything so considerately thought through and 'joined up' more than compensates for a lack of elemental drive. In any case it's the Lindberg that makes this disc unmissable.” Gramophone Classical Music Guide, 2010