MAGNUS LINDBERG: Sculpture, Concerto for Orchestra, Campana In Aria (Ondine)
UK release date: November 2008
The star of Magnus Lindberg continues to rise in his 50th birthday year, and Ondine continue to honour their Finnish compatriot by presenting two of his more expansive recent scores.
Sculpture received its UK premiere at the BBC Proms in 2005, and was written to honour the new, Frank Gehry-designed Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles. Its expansive contours betray the sheer size of the building, but also seem to set it in the context of the LA Basin.
While the work's ceremonial nature becomes clear with the trumpet fanfares two minutes in, Sculpture unfolds as an extremely descriptive piece, with bare piano octaves and rumbling timpani providing a real depth to the sound beforehand. This is supplemented by the addition of the beefy organ sound towards the end, and is where the music becomes most strongly rhythmic. The Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra, no strangers to the music of their countryman, respond in kind.
This is a fine performance, both detailed and expansive, which the Ondine engineers have done well to capture. Sakari Oramo, back in Finland after an extremely successful spell as chief conductor of the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, sounds totally attuned to this music and its latent power.
The Concerto for Orchestra is an even bigger showpiece, completed in 2003. As a work it is not as cohesive or convincing, yet like all of Lindberg's pieces to date it does carry a force that gathers momentum through its half hour duration. About a third of the way in Oramo starts to build real gravitas in the music, and towards the end the music finds a blazing tonality, but there are several gestures here that fans of the composer will have heard before. In a single, sprawling movement, it does make good use of its orchestral forces, without finding the concentration of Sculpture.
As a 'concertante' piece to offer some lighter relief the Campana In Aria makes demands on the higher register of horn player Esa Tapani. Playing almost throughout, he gives a well nigh faultless performance in a curious piece notable for employing unusually light, even frothy textures.
Performances and recording are top drawer, as they have been in Ondine's previous Lindberg discs – and though these elements are often taken for granted they are vital for contemporary music to be heard properly.
Magnus Lindberg has been served extremely well on disc up until now, and this trio of works, and Sculpture in particular, make an excellent addition to the discography.
