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Kalevi Aho: Chamber Music

Samuli Peltonen (cello), Sonja Fräki (piano), Jaakko Kuusisto (violin), Pekka Kuusisto (violin)

The works here find him in various states of mind but mostly diligence and distress. The two pieces written to mourn fellow musicians are, in fact, the best. Lamento was created for the funeral...

Kalevi Aho: Chamber Music

Samuli Peltonen (cello), Sonja Fräki (piano), Jaakko Kuusisto (violin), Pekka Kuusisto (violin)

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The works here find him in various states of mind but mostly diligence and distress. The two pieces written to mourn fellow musicians are, in fact, the best. Lamento was created for the funeral...

About

Internationally acclaimed for his music for orchestra (17 symphonies and 31 concertos to date), Kalevi Aho has also composed chamber and solo works. The present disc combines six such pieces, ranging across the composer’s career. The earliest work on the disc is the Bach-inspired Sonata for solo violin from 1973, reminding us that during his years at the Sibelius Aacademy (1968 – 71), Aho studied the violin as well as composition. Another early piece, Prelude, Toccata and Postlude, also started out as a solo work – this time for the cello – before developing into a duo. From the other end, chronologically speaking, is the ample Piano Sonata No. 2 from 2016, with a duration of some 25 minutes. This time it is Beethoven who has provided inspiration, and the composer describes the work as ‘a commentary on the Hammerklavier Sonata, in which Beethoven’s motifs are frequently “misquoted” and developed in a different direction.’ The sonata closes the programme but not before giving us an opportunity to hear three further works involving the violin – a second solo piece, In memoriam Pehr Henrik Nordgren, written in memory of Aho’s fellow composer and friend, Lamento for two violins and Halla (‘frost’) for violin and piano. Performing these works are four highly respected Finnish musicians, the violinists (and brothers) Jaakko and Pekka Kuusisto, Samuli Peltonen (cello) and Sonja Fräki, pianist and Aho specialist.

Contents and tracklist

I. Prelude
Track length3:20
II. Toccata
Track length3:07
III. Postlude
Track length3:15
I. Tempo di ciacona - Più mosso - Prestissimo
Track length8:31
II. Andante
Track length3:51
III. Grandioso - Coda
Track length8:44
I. Allegro - Presto - Allegro molto
Track length9:05
II. Tranquillo
Track length5:01
III. Allegro molto
Track length4:33
IV. Campane
Track length2:55
V. Allegro
Track length5:21

Awards and reviews

August 2020

The works here find him in various states of mind but mostly diligence and distress. The two pieces written to mourn fellow musicians are, in fact, the best. Lamento was created for the funeral of the violinist Sakari Laukola, who died young in 2001...It’s the best-played piece here, Jaakko Kuusisto’s sincerity obvious and his tone particularly strong and beautiful high up. Elsewhere, Aho’s own identity can recede into the background.

August 2020

The Kuusisto brothers are exceptionally well-matched, bringing a sense of poise to the work’s folk-like simplicity and traversing its textural intricacies expertly.

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