Lindberg, Magnus - Clarinet Concerto / Gran Duo / Chorale - Kriikku, Kari (clarinet)
GRAMOPHONE AWARD WINNER 2006 / CATEGORY CONTEMPORARY ...Collaborations between composers and clarinettists have given rise to some of the finest music: Mozart and Anton Stadler, Weber and Heinrich Baermann, Brahms and Richard Mühlfeld. Now, in Kari Kriikku, Magnus Lindberg has found his own clarinet muse.
Lindberg was one of the leading lights, alongside Esa-Pekka Salonen, Jouni Kaipainen and Kaija Saariaho, of the generation of Finnish composers who came to prominence in the 1980s. It was while working among such colleagues as these with the Toimii and Avanti! ensembles that Lindberg encountered Kriikku, and the clarinettist has since been the recipient of a string of works by Lindberg including Quintetto dell'estate (1979), Linea d'ombra (1981), Ablauf (1983-88), UR (1986), Duo concertante (1990-92), Steamboat Bill Jr (1990) and Away (1994) – works that suit the many facets of Kriikku's talents, ranging from the stunningly virtuoso to the overtly theatrical.
The Clarinet Concerto was composed in 2002, Lindberg delivering sections of the score to Kriikku by boat from his island retreat. Playful and aggressive sound worlds and allusions to Debussy and jazz styles come together as it builds in intensity towards its passionate conclusion. Earlier musics also inform the concerto's companion pieces on the disc: Gran Duo harks back to Mozart's Gran partita and Stravinsky's Symphonies of Wind Instruments, while Chorale was composed to share the bill with Berg's Violin Concerto and quotes from the same Bach chorale, Es ist genug.
The disc is an all-Finnish product. Ondine has brought together Lindberg and Kriikku with the Finnish Radio SO and Sakari Oramo, reflecting the vibrancy of musical life that continues to flourish there...
(Gramophone)
Kari Kriikku, clarinet
Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra/Sakari Oramo
Magnus Lindberg
1. Clarinet Concerto
2. Gran Duo
3. Chorale