Olli Hirvonen – Kielo

When it rains, it pours. In our last issue, I raved about a new recording of this curious and rarely heard version of Beethoven's well-known violin concerto—please refer to that issue for details and for a recapitulation of the major recordings of the piece from the early days of the long-playing record. Now here it is again, in a much more fleet reading by the brilliant young Finnish pianist and composer (his own music may be sampled on Finlandia's Portrait of Olli Mustonen and a radiant-sounding, closely miked Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie. The two new recordings complement each other nicely.

This is the second and final disc in a cycle of Sergei Prokofiev’s piano concertos with pianist Olli Mustonen and the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra conducted by Hannu Lintu. Of the first volume, Gramophone wrote: 'How many times have I regretted a shortage of fantasy, flair and fairy-tale imagination in recordings of the Prokofiev piano concertos? Well, here is a disc that takes all those qualities to the top'.

Furious cross-rhythms and accented repeated notes relent to hymnal lyricism in Olli Mustonen’s First String Quartet. But the peaceful third movement is an anomaly: the tension soon returns in a restless Impetuoso finale – the original melody now peppered with triumphant descent-like violin melodies. The Finnish composer describes a journey from darkness to light in the 2016 work; while the psychological aspects are clearly obvious – pacing bass lines, anxious tremolos – there is a sense of physical travelling, too, across craggy landscapes and into fantasy worlds.

Mustonen's performing/recording career contains many Beethoven performances and he is always very thoughtful, fluid and attuned to Beethoven's many moods and structural depth. Some other of his recordings (e.g., his Diabelli Variations) have moments of quirkiness, but this recording is more direct and impressive. One of my favorite items on it is his Eroica Variation performance. It is one of the finest I know of, very few others deserve to be mentioned in the same sentence as Glen Gould's - but this (rather different) one does.

A large number of saxophone concertos have been written, but only a handful are regularly performed. With these premiere recordings Olli-Pekka Tuomisalo showcases five works that, had circumstances been different, might easily have established themselves as repertoire pieces.

A large number of saxophone concertos have been written, but only a handful are regularly performed. With these premiere recordings Olli-Pekka Tuomisalo showcases five works that, had circumstances been different, might easily have established themselves as repertoire pieces.