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(World première recording) “Lindberg composed his Clarinet Quintet for Kriikku in 1992, and it is hard to imagine that this fabulously attractive work would ever have appeared without him to play it so brilliantly.” The Guardian Classical CD of the Week***** “The clarinet has featured prominently as a solo instrument in Magnus Lindberg's output throughout his career, though it was only in 2002 that he set about writing a concerto for his longtime colleague Kari Kriikku. The finished article, however, is really very different from 1980s pieces such as Ablauf and Linea d'ombra.
Running for 25 minutes, the work's four sections play continuously, if not seamlessly. Beautifully written for the instrument, there are hints of Debussy in the opening pages and – in the orchestration – of Barber and Copland later on, but the Concerto is in no way derivative. It proceeds with ineluctable momentum through a varied tonal landscape (including some decidedly jazz-like passages) to an ecstatic peroration that is deeply moving and uplifting, before closing out serenely: Rautavaara meeting Gershwin, perhaps.
There is something of Rautavaara's manner in the modest Chorale (2001-2), written to precede Berg's Violin Concerto (both use the chorale Esist genug). The larger Gran Duo for winds and brass (1999), with its suggestions of Stravinsky's Symphonies of Wind Instruments, is utterly different though no less impressive. The duo is between the woodwinds and brass en masse, the work a bracing dialogue across some 20 minutes with fascinating incidents along the way, not least where the textures pare down to chamber proportions, though the dark-hued coda has considerable cumulative power. Very strongly recommended.” Gramophone Classical Music Guide, 2010 “Magnus Lindberg's Clarinet Concerto has enjoyed phenomenal success since its 2002 premiere… A marvellous vehicle for the amazing virtuosity of clarinettist Kari Krikku, this is a shiny, sophisticated, nostalgic cultural artefact, indubitably contemporary in language yet sensuously easy (tuneful, even) on the ear. ...is a stunning disc.” BBC Music Magazine, September 2005 ***** | | | (also available to download from $10.50) | Usually despatched in 2 - 3 working days. (Available now to download.) |
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| |  | Magnus Lindberg: Orchestral Music
Magnus Lindberg is one of the most successful living composers. Since 2009, he has been The New York Philharmonic’s Composer-in-Residence. This anthology of works, written in 1982–2005, documents the evolution of Lindberg’s output and style since his earliest carrier until recent years. The featured works have helped to cement Lindberg’s international position at the forefront of orchestral composition, with several important awards along the way (Prix Italia 1986, the UNESCO Rostrum of Composers 1986, and the Nordic Music Prize 1988 for Kraft; Royal Philharmonic Society Prize 1992 and the Wihuri Sibelius Prize 2003). These recordings feature the Finnish Toimii Ensemble (including Magnus Lindberg on piano), Finnish RSO, the Avanti! Chamber Orchestra and the Bavarian RSO, as well as conductors Sakari Oramo, Esa-Pekka Salonen and Jukka-Pekka Saraste. “Magnus Lindberg is one of the most important post-1945 orchestral composers. He has managed to create a unique synthesis: a distinct, personal, approachable language combined with orchestral virtuosity in the spirit of Strauss, Ravel and Stravinsky.” Esa-Pekka Salonen “This collection of works written between 1982–2005 is a representative (and striking) sampler of his compositional skill.” london24.com, 17th June 2011 “The prodigious Finnish composer (b1958) is among the doughtiest wielders of the large orchestra at work today. His style is instantly recognisable — furiously scurrying surfaces, sounding at once felicitous and computer-controlled, underpinned by slow, rumbling, portentous harmonic changes...This impressive four-disc compilation of some (not all) of his orchestral essays allows one readily to trace his development.” Sunday Times, 10th April 2011 *** | | | (also available to download from $25.50) | Usually despatched in 2 - 3 working days. (Available now to download.) |
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Gramophone Awards 2006
Gramophone Magazine