Kalevi Aho: Timpani & Piano Concertos

Listen on Presto Music. Free thirty day trial. Find out more.

Ari-Pekka Mäenpää, who workshopped the score with Aho, plays it heroically but it’s difficult not to conclude that these lumbering instruments aren’t charismatic enough to headline a half-hour... — Gramophone Magazine, September 2018 More…

Release Date: 29th Jun 2018
Catalogue No: BIS2306
Label: BIS
Length: 60 minutes

Usually despatched in 3 - 4 working days

Aho: Concerto for Timpani and Orchestra

Work length28:25

$5.50

$9.05

$12.25

Ari-Pekka Mäenpää (timpani)
Turku Philharmonic Orchestra
Erkki Lasonpalo
Recorded: January 2017
Recording Venue: Turku Concert Hall, Finland

I. Barcarola

Track length10:29

$1.50

$3.85

$5.25

II. Intermezzo. Andante

Track length4:08

$1.00

$1.30

$1.75

III. Allegro ritmico

Track length6:38

$1.00

$1.30

$1.75

IV. Mesto

Track length3:23

$1.00

$1.30

$1.75

V. Presto

Track length3:47

$1.00

$1.30

$1.75

Aho: Concerto No. 1 for Piano and Orchestra

Work length31:46

$5.55

$7.75

$10.50

Sonja Fräki (piano)
Turku Philharmonic Orchestra
Eva Ollikainen
Recorded: January 2017
Recording Venue: Turku Concert Hall, Finland

I. Allegro

Track length11:36

$2.05

$3.85

$5.25

II. Quarter Note = 72

Track length6:31

$1.00

$1.30

$1.75

III. Quarter Note = 69 - Toccata. Allegro molto

Track length6:32

$1.00

$1.30

$1.75

IV. Quarter Note = 54-58

Track length7:07

$1.50

$1.30

$1.75

About
Reviews
Explore

About

Hugely productive, Kalevi Aho (b. 1949) has composed close to 30 concertos to date. These include works for traditional solo instruments – piano, violin, cello … – but also more unusual ones, such as the theremin or accordion. One project of Aho's is to write concertos for all of the instruments of the symphony orchestra, from the flute to the contrabassoon, and in 2015 the turn came to the timpani. The work was commissioned by the Turku Philharmonic Orchestra for its timpanist Ari-Pekka Mäenpää, and Mäenpää and Aho worked closely together during the writing process. The result is a concerto that explores the instrument's full potential, from the melody opening the concerto, which lasts more than thirty bars, to the rhythmically compelling third movement.

Composed almost 30 years earlier, Piano Concerto No. 1 reflects the composer's interest at the time in numerology, and specifically in so-called cyclic numbers. The colourful and exciting work is however anything but cerebral. Soloist is Sonja Fräki, who chose Aho's music for piano as the subject of her doctoral studies, and whose recording of the solo works (BIS-2106) was released to great acclaim in 2015. With the two works on this disc, no less than 16 concertos by Aho are available from BIS, in recordings that have been praised by reviewers worldwide, and received distinctions including the prestigious ECHO Klassik Award.

Reviews

September 2018

Ari-Pekka Mäenpää, who workshopped the score with Aho, plays it heroically but it’s difficult not to conclude that these lumbering instruments aren’t charismatic enough to headline a half-hour piece…Aho’s 1989 Piano Concerto is arranged according to a duodecimal cycle of 16 notes…Sonja Fräki negotiates its Scarlatti-like weave with high articulation and tenderness, and the orchestra engages with her.

Kalevi Aho: Timpani & Piano Concertos

SACD

Downloads

Contents

Download queue