Exciting guitar concertos on CD

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 is from time to time unashamedly brilliant, but it is not without a touch of intimate mystery (See: Repertoire tips). The Tapiola Sinfonietta is conducted on this CD by Dima Slobodeniouk and the soloist is one of Finland’s most versatile classical guitarists, Petri Kumela.