Juha

Pehr Henrik Nordgren (1944-2008) is considered by many composer-colleagues, musicians and music experts as one of the leading and most interesting composers of his generation. Works on this recording (Horn Concerto, Violin Concerto Nr 4 and Rock Score) are all recorded before, but now updated to super audio CD with new soloists on ALBA records. The whole league of performers including the orchestra itself are Ostrobothnians, where the composer settled to work too.

Composer, poet and folk fiddler, Wiljami Niittykoski (1895–1985) came from the Kaustinen village of Salonkylä in Western Finland, a region renowned for its lively folk music tradition. With the Kaustinen Folk Music Festival first held in the 1960s and the new folk music era he came to be an artist famous and popular the length and breadth of Finland. As a young man, he initially made a living as a joiner, then by tending the farm hacked out of the wilds by his parents where he spent his whole long life.

Alba’s new release is the Tallinn Chamber Orchestra's new album 'Pēteris Vasks'. The publication includes two string concertos by Latvian-born composer Pēteris Vasks, the first of which is 'Concerto No. 2 'Klātbūtne' for Cello and String Orchestra' – a three-part concerto for cello and string orchestra. Marko Ylönen will perform as a cello soloist on the recording. The second work on the album is the four-part 'Concerto for Viola and String Orchestra' that features viola player Lilli Maijala as soloist. The orchestra is conducted by Juha Kangas.

Patrik Kleemola (b.1981) is one of the most prominent Finnish guitarists to emerge in recent years. After winning the II Guitaristival “Takemitsu” International Guitar Competition in Finland 2004 and gaining prizes in other competitions such as Gargnano's International Guitar Competition, his concert career has taken him to London, Buenos Aires, Rome, Milan, Athens, Turin, Florence, Tallinn, Helsinki and other cities in South America and Europe.

In the booklet note for this release, Pehr Hendrik Nordgren is considered “among the most outstanding masters of this grossly underrated generation”, that is, the generation that fell outside the avant-garde wave of famous names born in the 1920s, and those who reacted against atonality and returned to tradition and easily recognisable genres such as minimalism. Nordgren has done well in numerous recordings on the Alba label and elsewhere, BIS and Finlandia to name two, but still doesn’t really have ‘household name’ status. Both As in a Dream and the Concerto for Viola, Double Bass and Chamber Orchestra Op. 87 are world premiere recordings.

Tallinn Chamber Orchestra’s album “Pēteris Vasks”. The publication includes two string concertos by Latvian-born composer Pēteris Vasks, the first of which is “Concerto No. 2 “Klātbūtne” for Cello and String Orchestra” – a three-part concerto for cello and string orchestra. Marko Ylönen will perform as a cello soloist on the recording. The second work on the album is the four-part “Concerto for Viola and String Orchestra” that features viola player Lilli Maijala as soloist. The orchestra is conducted by Juha Kangas.

This Finlandia disc, which sadly never got a US release and is hard to find there, surveys Per Nørgård's works for strings across a broad span of the Danish composer's output, from the 1950s to the 1990s. All of these express the perennial concerns of Nørgård's work: ambiguity, "infererence" and the development of the tonal tradition. Juha Kangas leads the Ostrobothnian Chamber Orchestra.