Pekka Kauppinen & Kymi Sinfonietta & Dmitri Slobodeniouk - Klami, U.: Violin Concerto / Suite For String Orchestra / Se (CD)

Release Date: 01/01/07

The Kymi - Scenes disc is an all-Klami affair. Of the three it's the shortest in playing time but then all three are wit

The Kymi - Scenes disc is an all-Klami affair. Of the three it's the shortest in playing time but then all three are within hailing distance of an hour. The Violin Concerto dates from 1943 but was lost and the work rewritten in 1954. Although the original score was found in 1957 the rewrite is what we hear from Pekka Kauppinen. It's a lovely work which will appeal to you if you enjoy the first concertos of Szymanowski and Prokofiev. You will also need to be able to live with pages that in their contours inevitably recall the Sibelius concerto and the idyllic sense of Slavonic nocturnals and perfumed air. The finale is more urgent, zany and even manic - a sort of moto perpetuo without quite fitting the definition. It ends on a very cleever downbeat pizzicato. The concerto lasts for more than half the duration of the CD. I recall hearing Jennifer Koh's version on Bis some years ago and my recollection is that Koh's tone is more full-lipped; I would need to get hold of a copy to check. Kauppinen is in any event a most touching and virtuosic guide. The Suite for String Orchestra (1937) is the same undemanding 'pleasantrie' that appears on Alba ABCD 242 recalling Rakastava at one moment and Sibelius's more intense works the next - for example in the stormy flighted final Allegro vivo. The pellucidly scored Sérénades joyeuses is unmistakably influenced by neo-classical Stravinsky and the absurdist fantasies of Prokofiev's Love of Three Oranges. As ever with Klami the four miniature movements are wonderfully concise and inspiration is not overstretched. Use of sharply etched percussion, hieratic trombone, edgily rhythmic cells and woodwind coloration make this a very distinctive mix. Finally we get the five movements of Scenes from a Puppet Show have the sharply defined horizon of de Falla's Harpsichord Concerto softened by the lacy-fragile and slightly melancholy sound of Ravel's Ma Mère l'Oye. Even the titles hint at the connection: The Chinese Merchant and Prinsessa Ruusunen - La belle au bois dormant. The final Brave General is a cheeky-cheery impudent fellow whose woodwind solo march suggest a jaunty CO of the bedroom playbox. There you have it: the Finnish composer Uuno Klami - a captivating composer whose tonal-nationalist-impressionistic style moved later in life a little towards the neo-classical. Do not neglect these indispensable Alba discs for your Klami collection.Rob Barnett