Moon Safari is a Swedish progressive rock group formed in Skellefteå, Sweden, in 2003. The band focuses on vocal arrangements in the style of Gene Puerling and they willingly surrender to the spirit of 60s rock, pop and progressive rock music, previously invoked by the Beatles, the Beach Boys and Yes.
La Passion de Simone is an oratorio for solo soprano, choir, orchestra, and electronics by Finnish composer Kaija Saariaho. Originally premiered in a stage version directed by Peter Sellars, this oratorio about the life and work of French philosopher Simone Weil, has been developed in a new version for live video by Jean-Baptiste Barriere. This new version premiered at the occasion of the 60th birthday celebration of Kaija Saariaho, offered to her as a surprise gift in Helsinki’s Musikkitalo earlier this month.
Finnish pianist Janne Mertanen, known mostly for Chopin recordings, here takes on probably the most-often-recorded pairing in the Romantic piano literature, the Piano Concerto in A minor, Op. 54, of Schumann, and the Piano Concerto in A minor, Op. 16, of Grieg. Does Mertanen have anything new to say here? Perhaps not totally, but his Grieg, from the very first grand gesture, is in the top rank of recordings of this well-loved work. The first movement is a dramatic tour de force, with the momentum carrying the music through what is often a rather leisurely episodic structure, and the central-movement nocturne is extremely delicately done.
Performances of Bach's St. John Passion, BWV 245, with these forces or close to them have become an annual Eastertime tradition in London, and this recording is guaranteed an appreciative audience. Certain details relate specifically to this tradition: several chorales are sung unaccompanied, but an accompanied version is included at the end for those who reject the dramatization.