Kaipainen

Jouni Kaipainen's first two symphonies were in one and two movements respectively but Kaipainen suggests no conclusions should be drawn from the fact that the Third (2004) is in three. The latest symphony is half as long again as No 2 and twice as epic, roaring away from the very first bar. While there are moments of reflection and calm, once it has you in its grip it does not let go. Vividly scored with many solos and ensembles interspersed between passages of invigorating orchestral power, there is a clear thread from start to end. Devotees of Peter Mennin's or Karl Amadeus Hartmann's music will find much to enjoy here.

Jouni Kaipainen first came to notice in the early 1990s with the premieres of his First Symphony, two-piano concerto Ladders to Fire and the clarinet concerto Carpe diem!. His musical style, while recognisably built on late-20th-century aesthetics, is advanced but not aggressive, postmodern tonal with much that is jovial and pleasingly lyrical. This new disc makes a good introduction to his sound world.

Composed in Russia between 1884 and 1917, the four works appearing on this disc all do so in some kind of disguise. Prokofiev and Scriabin both conceived their respective collections for the piano, and it is later arrangers that have adapted them for string orchestra. Rudolf Barshai took on Prokofiev’s Visions Fugitives in 1962, selecting 15 of the 20 brief pieces and arranging them for his own ensemble, the Moscow Chamber Orchestra. Scriabin’s Preludes received a similar treatment in 1999 when the Finnish composer Jouni Kaipainen chose 13 from the original 24, rearranging the order they appear in and transposing them in some cases. As for Anton Arensky (1861—1909), he composed his set of variations as the third movement of a string quartet, taking the theme from a song by Tchaikovsky and letting it undergo a series of transformations.

Composed in Russia between 1884 and 1917, the four works appearing on this disc all do so in some kind of disguise. Prokofiev and Scriabin both conceived their respective collections for the piano, and it is later arrangers that have adapted them for string orchestra. Rudolf Barshai took on Prokofiev’s Visions Fugitives in 1962, selecting 15 of the 20 brief pieces and arranging them for his own ensemble, the Moscow Chamber Orchestra. Scriabin’s Preludes received a similar treatment in 1999 when the Finnish composer Jouni Kaipainen chose 13 from the original 24, rearranging the order they appear in and transposing them in some cases.

Here is the first recording ever of the so-called Press Celebrations Music of 1899. Sibelius subsequently reworked and rescored the music later that same year in what became the first set of the Scenes historiques, Op. 25 and Finlandia, Op. 26, but here we have the first opportunity of hearing Sibelius’s original thoughts, as well as the Prelude, and the two movements that remained in manuscript. They are the second tableau, ‘The Finns are baptised’, and the fifth, ‘The Great Unrest’ or ‘Hostility’, referring to the so-called Great Northern War that followed the Russian capture of Viipuri in 1710 and the subsequent decline of Swedish power.

Since its formation in 1969, the Raschèr Saxophone Quartet has appeared regularly at the major concert halls in Europe, Asia and the U.S.: Carnegie Hall and Lincoln Center New York, Kennedy Center Washington D.C., Opera Bastille Paris, Royal Festival Hall London, Philharmonie Cologne, Finlandia Hall Helsinki, Concertgebouw Amsterdam, Schauspielhaus Berlin, Musikverein Vienna, Tonhalle Zürich, Parco della Musica Rome, Dewan Filharmonik Petronas Kuala Lumpur, National Concert Hall Taipei, etc. The Vienna “Zeitung” hailed the quartet as the “Uncrowned Kings of the Saxophone” and a critic from “Die Welt” claimed, “If there were an Olympic discipline for virtuoso wind playing, the Raschèr Quartet would definitely receive a gold medal.”