When the Ostrobothnian Chamber Orchestra brings together some of the works that over the years have been dedicated to the orchestra’s long-standing Artistic Director and now Honorary Conductor Juha Kangas, it is obviously going to be a collection of emotionally and expressively powerful and excellent music – pieces tailor-made for the orchestra’s deep-rooted sound and intense music-making.

Reviews

Emotionally powerful tailor-made pieces

When the Ostrobothnian Chamber Orchestra brings together some of the works that over the years have been dedicated to the orchestra’s long-standing Artistic Director and now Honorary Conductor Juha Kangas, it is obviously going to be a collection of emotionally and expressively powerful and excellent music – pieces tailor-made for the orchestra’s deep-rooted sound and intense music-making.

The disc comes across as a classic progression from darkness to light, beginning with the uncompromisingly compelling ...jäätyivät umpeen levottomat vedet [the restless waters froze solid] (1996) by Kalevi Aho – the first movement from his Chamber Symphony no. 3 – and the sonorously innovative Was there a butterfly? (2013) by Onutė Narbutaitė.

Einojuhani Rautavaara’s Canto V (Into the heart of light) (2011) is typical of his late period, while Erkki Salmenhaara’s Elegia II (1963) and Elegia V (1995) form a gratifyingly contrasting pair: the former in the modernist style typical for its time, the latter in the composer’s late, neo-Romantic idiom.

Musica serena, a 70th-birthday present to Juha Kangas from Pēteris Vasks, is achingly beautiful in its almost Sibelian string textures and concludes the disc with a balm of firm faith and consolation.


DEDICATED TO - works for the Ostrobothnian Chamber Orchestra and Juha Kangas


Aho: ...jäätyivät umpeen levottomat vedet 
Narbutaitè: Was there a butterfly?
Salmenhaara: Elegia II; Elegia V 
Rautavaara: Canto V 
Vasks: Musica Serena
Ostrobothnian Chamber Orchestra, cond. Juha Kangas

Alba ABCD 414


Dedicated to album has been nominated for Emma Awards (Finland's Grammy) 2017. FMQ reviews on other nominees here.

Reviews

When the Ostrobothnian Chamber Orchestra brings together some of the works that over the years have been dedicated to the orchestra’s long-standing Artistic Director and now Honorary Conductor Juha Kangas, it is obviously going to be a collection of emotionally and expressively powerful and excellent music – pieces tailor-made for the orchestra’s deep-rooted sound and intense music-making.

The disc comes across as a classic progression from darkness to light, beginning with the uncompromisingly compelling ...jäätyivät umpeen levottomat vedet [the restless waters froze solid] (1996) by Kalevi Aho – the first movement from his Chamber Symphony no. 3 – and the sonorously innovative Was there a butterfly? (2013) by Onutė Narbutaitė.

Einojuhani Rautavaara’s Canto V (Into the heart of light) (2011) is typical of his late period, while Erkki Salmenhaara’s Elegia II (1963) and Elegia V (1995) form a gratifyingly contrasting pair: the former in the modernist style typical for its time, the latter in the composer’s late, neo-Romantic idiom.

Musica serena, a 70th-birthday present to Juha Kangas from Pēteris Vasks, is achingly beautiful in its almost Sibelian string textures and concludes the disc with a balm of firm faith and consolation.


DEDICATED TO - works for the Ostrobothnian Chamber Orchestra and Juha Kangas


Aho: ...jäätyivät umpeen levottomat vedet 
Narbutaitè: Was there a butterfly?
Salmenhaara: Elegia II; Elegia V 
Rautavaara: Canto V 
Vasks: Musica Serena
Ostrobothnian Chamber Orchestra, cond. Juha Kangas

Alba ABCD 414


Dedicated to album has been nominated for Emma Awards (Finland's Grammy) 2017. FMQ reviews on other nominees here.