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Cover: Magnus Lindberg – Chamber Works

Magnus Lindberg

Chamber Works

Kari Kriikku
Anssi Karttunen
Magnus Lindberg

ODE 1199-2 · CD · August 2012

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Track listing

16 tracks · 59:39

Magnus Lindberg

  1. Trio for clarinet, cello and piano (2008) 19:29
  2. 1 I. Sound big, sound 8:19
  3. 2 II. Like the tranquility we seek 5:38
  4. 3 III. Crash wave, crash 5:33
  5. Santa Fe Project (Konzertstück)for cello and piano (2006) 14:24
  6. 4 I. 6:20
  7. 5 II. 3:08
  8. 6 III. 4:54
  9. Partia for cello solo (2001) 13:51
  10. 7 I. Sinfonia 3:41
  11. 8 II. Coranto 2:10
  12. 9 III. Aria 2:35
  13. 10 IV. Boria 2:03
  14. 11 V. Double 1:12
  15. 12 VI. Giga 2:06
  16. Dos Coyotes for cello and piano (1993/2002) 12:02
  17. 13 I. 5:25
  18. 14 II. 1:22
  19. 15 III. 4:06
  20. 16 IV. 1:07

About this recording

These world première recordings combine four of Magnus Lindberg's chamber works from the 2000s, although the roots of one of them go back to the 1990s.

Magnus Lindberg's composer personality has always been coloured by a strong sense of practical musicianship. It is evident in his orchestral works and concertos in his rich instrumental invention and the demanding yet gratifying and idiomatic instrumental parts. The same applies to his chamber music works, but here the musicianship aspect is even more evident especially in more recent works, which Lindberg has written specifically for himself to perform on the piano.
Magnus Lindberg has written many pieces for clarinetist Kari Kriikku and cellist Anssi Karttunen, two important figures in contemporary music scene in Finland. The Clarinet Trio, including fine reminiscences of Brahms and Ravel, now brings together these two musicians with the composer himself on piano.

Hailed by the New York Times as "A physically flamboyant player of Olympian virtuosity...", Kari Kriikku has been a living inspiration behind a great number of remarkable Finnish compositions for the clarinet. On stage and through recordings, he has championed concertos and chamber works written for him by Kimmo Hakola, Jouni Kaipainen, Magnus Lindberg, Uljas Pulkkis, Kaija Saariaho, and Jukka Tiensuu. Above all, Kari Kriikku has premiered the entire output for clarinet by Magnus Lindberg. His recording of the Clarinet Concerto earned him both a Gramophone Award and a BBC Music Magazine Award in 2006.

Anssi Karttunen is a passionate advocate for contemporary music. He has performed over 125 world premieres, collaborating with such composers as Magnus Lindberg, Kaija Saariaho, Rolf Wallin, Luca Francesconi, and Tan Dun. An astounding 24 concertos have been written for him, among them Magnus Lindberg's cello concerto premiered with the Orchestre de Paris, and Kaija Saariaho's concerto Notes on Light.

Features

Booklet with liner notes in English and Finnish

The artists

Kari Kriikku

Hailed by the New York Times as “A physically flamboyant player of Olympian virtuosity…”, Kari Kriikku has been a living inspiration behind a great number of remarkable Finnish compositions for the clarinet. On stage and through recordings, he has championed concertos and chamber works written for him by Kimmo Hakola, Jouni Kaipainen, Magnus Lindberg, Uljas Pulkkis, Kaija Saariaho, and Jukka Tiensuu. Above all, Kari Kriikku has premiered the entire output for clarinet by Magnus Lindberg. His recording of the Clarinet Concerto earned him both a Gramophone Award and a BBC Music Magazine Award in 2006. Furthermore he has championed the clarinet works of Jukka Tiensuu. Both concerto works Puro (“brook”, or “Bach” in German) and Missa he has performed more than fifty times.

Full biography

Anssi Karttunen

The Finnish cellist Anssi Karttunen is one of the most renowned and versatile musicians in the classical music world today and enjoys a busy career as a soloist and chamber music player. He performs on modern cello, classical and baroque cellos and on violoncello piccolo. Anssi Karttunen performs all the standard cello works, but has also discovered many forgotten masterpieces and arranged a number of pieces for cello. He is a passionate advocate of contemporary music and his collaboration with composers has led him to give over 50 world premieres of works by composers such as Magnus Lindberg, Kaija Saariaho (including Notes on Light in 2007, which he recorded; ODE 1130-2), Rolf Wallin, Luca Francesconi and Tan Dun.

Full biography

Magnus Lindberg

Magnus Lindberg is one of the internationally best known Finnish composers of his generation. Lindberg is predominantly a composer of instrumental music, above all orchestral music. His musical language is usually highly complex yet highly full of vim and verve. Lindberg is both rationalist and pragmatist, a hands-on musician - a pianist - who participated in many premieres in the early stages of his career and founded the experimental Toimii Ensemble.

Full biography

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