Nielsen & Aho - Clarinet Concertos - BIS: BISSACD1463 - SACD or download

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Those who cherish earlier versions of Neilsen's masterpiece… will know how deep this music runs and how haunting it is. The young Swedish clarinettist give what I must say is the most searching... — BBC Music Magazine, July 2007, 5 out of 5 stars More…

Release Date: 2nd Apr 2007
Catalogue No: BISSACD1463
Label: BIS
Length: 53 minutes

BBC Music Magazine

July 2007

Orchestral Choice
Gramophone Magazine

May 2007

Editor's Choice

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Nielsen: Clarinet Concerto Op. 57 (FS129)

Work length24:19

$4.55

$7.75

$10.50

Martin Fröst
Lahti Symphony Orchestra
Osmo Vänskä
Recorded: May 2004
Recording Venue: Sibelius Hall, Lahti, Finland

Allegretto un poco -

Track length8:19

$1.50

$2.60

$3.50

Poco adagio -

Track length4:52

$1.00

$1.30

$1.75

Allegro non troppo - Adagio - Allegro vivace

Track length11:08

$2.05

$3.85

$5.25

Aho: Clarinet Concerto

Work length29:38

$5.50

$7.80

$10.50

Martin Fröst
Lahti Symphony Orchestra
Osmo Vänskä
Recorded: June 2006
Recording Venue: Church of the Cross, Lahti, Finland

I. Tempestoso

Track length7:47

$1.50

$2.60

$3.50

II. Cadenza. Tranquillo

Track length2:28

$1.00

$1.30

$1.75

III. Vivace con brio

Track length6:22

$1.00

$1.30

$1.75

IV. Adagio mesto

Track length6:22

$1.00

$1.30

$1.75

V. Epilogo. Misterioso

Track length6:39

$1.00

$1.30

$1.75

Reviews
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Reviews

July 2007

Those who cherish earlier versions of Neilsen's masterpiece… will know how deep this music runs and how haunting it is. The young Swedish clarinettist give what I must say is the most searching and gripping performance of all, and reveals qualities of imagination and insight that make you listen with new ears. Kalevi Aho's... 2005 concerto was written for Martin Fröst... It strikes me as one of his finest pieces, immediate in its appeal and full of compelling musical incident and a dazzling virtuosity that Fröst takes effortlessly in his stride.

2010

Kalevi Aho's Concerto starts arrestingly but without a trace of the attention-seeking that afflicts certain other clarinet concertos of recent times. There is something in Aho's five continuous movements that recalls Nielsen's directness and free-flowing succession of ideas, and the cadenza that forms the second movement even brings momentary echoes of Nielsen's uncompromising skirls and flourishes.
But the Finn's sights are set more on the starkly elemental than on the quirkily personal.
For Aho the Vivace con brio third movement is the 'centre and culmination', and it is certainly exuberant – dangerous, even – in its restless virtuosity, rather like Strauss's Till Eulenspiegel driven mad by inner demons. After this a sad slow movement brings sober reflection, and an Epilogue concludes the work on a note of mystery.
There can have been few equally impressive head-on engagements with the concerto medium in recent years.
There are eight or so modern accounts of the Nielsen Clarinet Concerto in the catalogue.
Most have fine qualities. Yet for sureness of idiomatic touch none dislodges Ib Erikson's classic 1954 Danish accounts (now available on Dutton Labs).
Closer to the mark than any modern rivals is this new issue from Martin Fröst, the clarinettist of the moment for all-round artistry allied to adventurous approach to repertoire. He seems to have Nielsen's irascible masterpiece in his bloodstream, as surely as he has its technical contortions under his fingers. Vänskä ensures that the Lahti players are never fazed by the exposed edges in the accompaniment, and only the very drawn-out final bars come across as slightly self-conscious. Detail for detail, phrase for phrase, this team takes the palm over the old Danish recording, even before considering BIS's immeasurably superior sound quality.
Even so, Erikson and Wöldike remain a benchmark for insight into the character of the piece.
In sum, a CD of rare distinction.

Nielsen & Aho - Clarinet Concertos

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