Aho, Kalevi

Kalevi Aho wrote the hilarious, virtuosic and compact "Berliner Bagatelle" in winter 2018 at the request of the Berlin Philharmonic Wind Quintet as a sort of concert encore. Duration 5 minutes.

The latest addition to Aho’s sequel for solo instrument pieces: Solo XVII takes a notice to the special features of the clavichord, which is different from that of a piano or harpsichord. The piece was premiered by Michael Hasel in October 2021.

Among the ambitious composition projects by Aho has been to write a concerto for each of the main instruments in the Romantic symphony orchestra. In 2011 the Horn Concerto was completed. The speciality of the work is that the soloist moves around the concert hall during the course of the work. Duration 27 minutes.Solo horn…

Kalevi Aho’s guitar concerto (2018) is in seven movements performed without a break and each using the guitar in a different way. Duration ca. 30 minutes. Solo part 55011-710-5, 24,90 € Buy now

Kalevi Aho composed this piece for oboe in 2015 for the 60th anniversary of his brother Keijo Aho, who also premiered the work. The 10-minute work has five movements and is suitable also for advanced students. Each movement portrays a muse of the Greek mythology. 55011-493-7, € 13,90

Kalevi Aho composed ER-OS in 2015 as a wedding gift for conductor-clarinetist Osmo Vänskä and violinist Erin Keefe and named the work with the initials of their names. The virtuosic work is divided in three parts, the overall duration c. 11 minutes. 2 Playing scores: 55011-687-0, € 18,90

In spring 2020 the coronavirus began to spread throughout the world and in many places people were subjected to quarantine. It was then that the Japanese violist Hiyoli Togawa proposed to the record label BIS to release a viola disc entitled Songs of Solitude of short pieces by different contemporary composers as a reflection of…

Aho’s song cycle is set to poems of a Finnish modernist Tuomas Anhava (1927-2001). The composer tells: “I tried to create a work in which the words and the music were organically one. These autumnal poems immediately began to sound as music in my mind since they have a very beautiful musical ring and rhythm.”…

Scored for piano left hand and string quartet, Mysterium (2019) consists of four movements performed without a break. Inspired by the last, unfinished work, by Alexander Scriabin, Mysterium is a piano quintet dedicated to pianist Izumi Tateno. It is founded throughout on six-part Scriabin-like harmonies that also served as a basis for the melodic material….

A large-scale work in four movements lasting over half an hour, Kalevi Aho’s Sonata for violoncello and piano (2019) in four movements is furios, virtuosic and poweful, with a lyrical second movement. The third movement is a cello cadenza, provided in two versions: with and without throat singing. 55011-673-3, € 29,90