Kalevi Aho: String quartets Nos. 2 & 3

Kalevi Aho’s Second String Quartet dates from February 1970, when he was in his second year as a student of Einojuhani Rautavaara at the Sibelius Academy. Its premiere in the debut concert of the Finlandia Quartet in the Sibelius Academy concert series on 18 November 1970 also marked Aho’s debut as a composer, since it was the first performance of a work by him at a public concert. Buy now

String quartet no. 3 (1971) comprises eight short sections played in a single movement without pause and is strictly linear in character. The work begins, in all simplicity, with dance music of a rather innocent nature. Gradually, however, the tone of the quartet becomes more and more complex and ‘modern’ until this phase of development reaches a peak in the 4th and 5th sections with a very intricate polyphony. Buy now