Eri Sugai

Eri Ohno is a Japanese pop, funk and jazz singer.
Eri Ohno recorded her debut album Feeling Your Love and the single "Trad Man" (Better Days) in 1979, followed by several albums on the Denon and Nippon Columbia record labels. She recorded the album Eri My Dear (1982) with Toshiyuki Daitoku (keyboards), Cecil McBee (bass) and Billy Hart (drums). With Hank Jones, Eddie Gomez and Jimmy Cobb, an album with songs by Cole Porter like "I Get a Kick Out of You", "Love for Sale" or "Night and Day" was released in Tokyo in 1984.

It’s simply astonishing that Einar Englund’s Piano Concertos have not become firm staples of the repertoire. Each possesses the crowd-pleasing elements of concertos by Shostakovich, Prokofiev, Bartók, and Ravel, but are wholly original rhythmic and harmonic tours de force with nary a note wasted in the process. For some time, collectors have been content to rely on Naxos’ estimable recording of the First Piano Concerto, but this new version from Ondine blows it away and quickly establishes itself as the reference against which all others (if there are any) will be judged. Matti Raekallio’s incredibly sure-footed playing blends seamlessly with the Tampere Philharmonic’s enthusiastic and feisty accompaniment, and the recorded sound comes through with a beguilingly natural presence, especially in the renderings of the piano’s timbre and the silky sheen of the violins.

Einar Englund passed away in 1999 at the age of 83. One of Finland’s main symphonists from the post-Sibelius era, he left seven symphonies and six concertos for various solo instruments. The Cello Concerto was written in 1954. It’s a brilliant work whose melodic and rhythmic patterns bear the unequivocal imprint of Bartók. The latter’s presence is so strong in every detail that one could easily take the piece for a recently rediscovered posthumous concerto by the Hungarian composer! Some kind of achievement in itself… Subtitled “Aphorisms”, the 6th Symphony was composed exactly 30 years later, and shows a much more personal style.

Einar Englund’s incidental music to The Great Wall of China will delight and astonish music lovers looking for a refreshing new experience. .. Not only do Eri Klas and the Tampere Philharmonic offer performances as gripping, cogent, and virtuosic as the music ideally demands (and make no mistake, Englund was one of the 20th century’s masters at writing for orchestra), Ondine has captured them in stunningly realistic, impactful sound. Don’t miss this extraordinary recording by any means!