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Cover: Kimmo Hakola – Clarinet Quintet · Loco · Capriole

Kimmo Hakola

Clarinet Quintet

Loco · Capriole

Kari Kriikku, clarinet
Avanti! Quartet
Anssi Karttunen, cello

ODE 960-2 · CD · February 2002

Buy / listen

Track listing

4 tracks · 70:42

Listen to samples on selected tracks.

Kimmo Hakola

  1. Clarinet Quintet (1997) 42:20
  2. 1 I. Process 13:45
  3. 2 II. Meditation 28:35
  4. 3 Loco, for solo clarinet (1995) 19:45
  5. 4 Capriole, for bass clarinet and cello (1991) 8:37

About this recording

This CD contains three works featuring clarinet which were written by Finnish composer Kimmo Hakola for his compatriot Kari Kriikku.

The 42-minute Clarinet Quintet (1997) consists of two contrasting movements and exhibits, like the other two works, a ready sense of humour and a fascination for Oriental music (both real and imagined), with melismatic ornaments, hypnotic repetition and exotic sensuality. It features Kari Kriikku with the Avanti! Quartet (John Storgårds, violin; Anna Hohti-Jaatinen, violin; Tuula Riisalo, viola; Lea Pekkala, cello). Capriole, written for the unusual combination of bass clarinet and cello, was premièred by Kari Kriikku and Anssi Karttunen in 1991 and won Hakola the Unesco composers' rostrum nomination two years later. Loco, for solo clarinet, combines traditional demonic virtuoso performance with a modern quest for new modes of expression.

Features

Booklet with liner notes in English, German, French and Finnish

Press

The performances are exemplary.
Martin Anderson, International Record Review, August 2002

Krikku is reason enough to get this disc. At almost every moment, he produces gaping-mouth, bulging-eyes performances. I'm a serious composer, (Hakola) told Fanfare's Martin Anderson last year, but not so serious. Life is wunderbar. So is this disc, many times over.
Paul Rapoport, Fanfare Magazine

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

Avanti! Quartet

The Avanti! Quartet is one of the many smaller ensembles that operate under the umbrella of the Avanti! Chamber Orchestra. The Quartet's repertoire and interpretative leanings are marked by the same broad view and uncompromising "openness to all" of the orchestra itself. Hence the ensemble searches out the sources of authentic performances of the Viennese Classics, tries to shrug off the burdens of tradition in its romantic repertoire, and studies exhaustively the new means of expression required for contemporary compositions.

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

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