The premiere of Tuomas Turriago’s Trumpet Concerto is scheduled for 5 April, at the Tampere Hall. It has been commissioned by the Tampere Philharmonic Orchestra and Venezuelan Pacho Flores, a star trumpeter who records on the Deutsche Grammophon label and has twice been the winner of a Latin Grammy. Lasting 20 minutes, the concerto is…
The CD of music by Lotta Wennäkoski won the British Gramophone Award for the best release in the contemporary category. The disc by the Finnish RSO, conducted by Nicholas Collon, was released by Ondine and includes three works: Flounce, Sedecim and the harp concerto Sigla. The soloist in the concerto is Sivan Magen. The Avanti!…
Kalevi Aho, one of Finland’s most celebrated contemporary composers, will be 75 on 9 March 2024, and there will be numerous concerts to mark the event. The Saimaa Sinfonietta commissioned him to write his 18th symphony, which was premiered in Mikkeli on 8 February with Erkki Lasonpalo conducting. The Oulu Symphony Orchestra under Jessica Cottis…
Matthew Whittall has two big orchestral commissions in the pipeline. One of them, from the Finnish Broadcasting Company (Yle), is Joy – Symphony for Orchestra and Organ to be premiered by the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra at the Helsinki Music Centre on 22 May 2024. The soloist in this concert conducted by Nicholas Collon will…
Guitar concertos by three front-line Finnish composers have been released by Alba Records on a disc titled Exquisitely Absurd. Antti Auvinen’s Andalusian Panzerwagen Jazz represents his typical maximalist-anarchist style combining various styles and ideas, while the approach of Lotta Wennäkoski in Susurrus is both humorous and outright lyrical. The orchestration of Riikka Talvitie’s Without Irony…
“Resolutely inspired, joyful, complex, fleeting, and visionary. Rantala proves once again that he is one of the greatest European artists.” These enthusiastic reviews portrait Iiro Rantala’s new work Veneziana for chamber ensemble and piano, which has already received several performances. It is a musical kaleidoscope about the famous city and composers that are linked to it –…
