Following the Luosto Symphony's premiere, Aho wanted to write on a smaller scale, for chamber orchestra. In the event, however, he produced a concert full of three interlinked works (2006-07) that, while performable separately, taken together 'form some sort of great “meta-symphony”'.
The concert opens with The Book of Questions, a half-hour-long song-cycle to lines from Neruda's final collection. Absent is the lushness of the Chinese Songs: the opening and closing sections are spoken and not until the fourth section does anything like their radiance of vocal writing emerge; by the 10th there is a hint of Aho's old teacher Rautavaara. Monica Groop sings as beautifully as she may, but the cycle's restraint is all-pervasive. Not so in the Viola Concerto which starts from the same chord with which the cycle concludes (in concert the soloists play tag while the music is still sounding); this is the more familiar Aho, dramatic, lyric, rhythmically vital.
The Fourteenth Symphony (Rituals) forms the concert's second half, exchanging singer and viola-player for two percussionists, the first performing on the Arabian darabuka and African djembe (Aho confesses he is 'bored' with Western drums). Their special timbres infuse the three main sections called 'Incantation', separated by two interludes and a Procession in which the second percussionist takes centre stage with an array of gongs. At a few points the spirit of Hovhaness hovers dimly over proceedings but Aho's personal voice is too strong to succumb to pastiche. The performances here are strong and compelling, the soloists at the top of their game and BIS's recording (made in Rovaniemi Church) superb as always.

A specially composed triptych of works forms one grand design. The performances here are strong and compelling, the soloists at the top of their game and BIS's recording (made in Rovaniemi Church) superb as always.