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Audio Samples
Album Summary
Performers
Gina DiBello (Violin)- Anthony Ross (Cello)
- Thomas Turner (Viola)
- Sarah Kwak (Violin)
- Susan Billmeyer (Piano)
- Susanne Kujala (Accordion)
- Veli Kujala (Accordion)
- Osmo Vänskä (Clarinet)
Notes & Reviews:
Renowned for his rich production in the field of orchestral music, Kalevi Aho is also a prolific composer for chamber forces. Here three works spanning two decades have been combined, with the Sonata for two accordions originating in 1984 as a Sonata for solo accordion described by the composer in his own liner notes as 'comparable in aspiration with Liszt's most virtuosic piano works'. Completed five years later, the duo version exploits to the utmost the unique possibilities offered by the accordion and remains highly virtuosic. It was premièred as late as 2002 by Veli and Susanne Kujala, who also perform it on this recording. At the other end of the time-line described by this disc, the Trio for clarinet, viola and piano was commissioned to be the set chamber music work of the 2006 Tampere Viola Competition. While the single-movement Trio reserves a prominent role for the viola, Aho describes it as 'a quite short and flamboyant work in which each instrument has something important to say'. Opening the disc is the large-scale Clarinet Quintet, composed in 1998 as one in a series of quintets involving woodwind instruments, begun in 1973 with an Oboe Quintet and completed by the 2006 Wind Quintet. Again a musician from the first performance appears on this disc: better known as a conductor, Osmo Vänskä began his career as principal clarinet in the Helsinki Philharmonic. By 1998 he had already made his mark as a conductor, with seminal recordings of Sibelius' symphonies with the Lahti Symphony Orchestra. But Vänskä was also - and has remained - a great champion of Kalevi Aho's music, and was easily persuaded to take on the important clarinet part for the première of the quintet. For this return to the work, Vänskä has gathered members of the Minnesota Orchestra, where he is currently music director.
MusicWeb International, August 2012
What's most intriguing about this review disc is that it features Osmo Vänskä not as a conductor but as a soloist...Vänskä the soloist - now eloquent, now earthy - is a real delight...Not to be outdone, the other members of the group play with considerable trenchancy when required; they're also very much at ease in the more withdrawn passages that dot this composer's uvre.
American Record Guide, January/February 2013
The strings handle the scores with greater skill and ease, even if some passages are a bit scrappy; and while Turner gives the Trio a justlysorrowful tone, he struggles sometimes with clarity and tuning. The keyboard players, by contrast, are all excellent; and the Kujala duo shines in the Sonata, delivering it with breathtaking virtuosity and nuance.
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Works Details
Aho, Kalevi : Quintet for clarinet & string quartet - Performers: Osmo Vänskä (Clarinet); Gina DiBello (Violin); Anthony Ross (Cello); Thomas Turner (Viola); Sarah Kwak (Violin)
- Running Time: 35 min. 10 sec.
- Period Time: Contemporary
- Form: Chamber Music
Aho, Kalevi : Trio for clarinet, viola & piano - Performers: Susan Billmeyer (Piano); Osmo Vänskä (Clarinet); Thomas Turner (Viola)
- Running Time: 13 min. 17 sec.
- Period Time: Contemporary
- Form: Chamber Music
Aho, Kalevi : Sonata for 2 Accordions - Performers: Susanne Kujala (Accordion); Veli Kujala (Accordion)
- Running Time: 26 min. sec.
- Period Time: Contemporary
- Written: 1984
