Lindberg

This CD features Esa-Pekka Salonen and the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra with two major important works by Finnish composer Magnus Lindberg. The composer himself plays the solo part in the Piano Concerto (1990-94). The large-scale orchestral piece KRAFT (1983-85) features the Toimii Ensemble, in which Lindberg plays piano and percussion. This group was founded by Lindberg and Salonen in 1981 and has provided the composer with a laboratory for his sonic development. KRAFT meant for Lindberg the compositional breakthrough and earned him the UNESCO rostrum in 1986 and the Nordic Music Prize in 1988. Magnus Lindberg here performs on piano as a member of the Tomii Ensemble.

Jan Sandström (b. 1954) is among the most frequently performed Swedish composers on the international scene today. His ‘Motorbike Concerto’ for trombone and orchestra is for instance one of the most played Swedish orchestral works of all times, with more than 600 performances since its première in 1989. The Motorbike Concerto was the first major result of the collaboration between Sandström and the trombone virtuoso Christian Lindberg – a collaboration which has evolved over the years, to the point that Lindberg here conducts the Iceland Symphony Orchestra in four works reflecting Sandström’s trajectory as composer for orchestra, from Éra (1979–80) to Ocean Child in its revised 2004 version.

In terms of genre, Allan Pettersson was uniquely single-minded: during his entire career as a composer (1953–80) he produced only a dozen or so works that were not symphonies. By name, Violin Concerto No. 2 is one of these, but it is fair to say that it straddles the divide. Pettersson himself remarked: ‘In reality my work was a Symphony for violin and orchestra. From this results the fact that the solo violin is incorporated into the orchestra like any other instrument.’ It should therefore not come as a surprise that Christian Lindberg has chosen to include this massive 53-minute work in his acclaimed and award-winning series of Pettersson’s symphonies, realised in collaboration with the Norrköping Symphony Orchestra. The concerto was written in 1977, 28 years after its predecessor, the Concerto for Violin and String Quartet (1949).

Even though Magnus Lindberg's music is densely textured, highly varied, and unpredictable, and as complex, dissonant, and explosive as the wildest avant-garde music, it is often surprisingly pleasant, accessible, and exciting, particularly so in the kaleidoscopic and insanely colorful Clarinet Concerto (2002). This spectacular piece may serve as the best introduction to Lindberg's extremely virtuosic, multilayered music, especially because the focus on a single line instrument clarifies many of Lindberg's procedures and ideas – which can often seem buried in his thicker orchestral works – and highlights them in vivid relief against the elaborate and lush accompaniment.

From the reign of Henry VIII and onwards, the lute and its practitioners enjoyed the patronage of the very highest English society. Henry played the lute himself, as did his daughter Elizabeth I, who during one period employed as many as five lutenists at her court. In 1603, when she was succeeded on the throne by James I, the tradition was maintained: with his appointment of John Dowland the king increased the number of royal lutenists, while his queen, Anne of Denmark, played the lute herself. This royal enthusiasm for the lute influenced the aristocracy, and an English style of lute music was established.

John Lindberg Ensemble - The Catbird Sings (2000) {Black Saint 120198-2 rec 1999}
EAC rip (secure mode) | FLAC (tracks)+CUE+LOG -> 336 Mb | MP3 @320 -> 149 Mb
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© 2000 Black Saint | 120198-2
Jazz / Modern Creative / Post Bop / Progressive Jazz / Bass

And here is another winner from John Lindberg, in an ensemble with Andrew Cyrille on drums, Larry Ochs on sax and Wadada Leo Smith on trumpet. Not all tracks are played by all four musicians. The first piece is a wonderful slow meditative duet between trumpet and bass. The second, "Waltz Four", starts with a strong two-minute long bass intro, after which the three other musicians join, with a staggeringly beautiful melody in the high tones by Ochs, with solid thematic counterpoint by Smith.