Notes and Editorial Reviews
This is an unusual collection of unfamiliar music, most of it noble and some of it quietly disturbing. The four terse, dark movements of Rautavaara’s Soldier’s Mass are a universe away from the mystical musings of his later symphonic works, and Sallinen’s early Chorali has a granitic quality that he has allowed to soften with the years. Nielsen’s tiny paraphrase on ‘Nearer My God to Thee’, inspired by the sinking of the Titanic, builds to a brief, shocking catastrophe where we glimpse the cataclysm of the Fifth Symphony. When heard in wind-band scoring, that great Norwegian original Geirr Tveitt, the only composer to be represented here by two works, discloses an affinity to his friend Percy Grainger, especially the latter’s Hill Songs.
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Tveitt’s five-movement Sinfonietta of 1962, with its central ‘fanfara funèbre’ (an extraordinary movement) and scherzo in the rhythm of a springar, is a minor masterpiece; a premiere recording too. (It should not be mistaken for Tveitt’s rather later Third Symphony for winds, which confusingly has the same opus number). Ole Schmidt’s Hommage à Stravinsky is a witty assemblage of quotations and salient stylistic tics; even Alfvén’s moderately bombastic Festival Overture is worth the occasional hearing. Altogether the disc is worth the attention of any devotee of the composers included.
Performance: 4 (out of 5), Sound: 4 (out of 5)
-- Calum MacDonald, BBC Music Magazine Read less
Works on This Recording
1.
The Old Mill on the Brook, Op. 204 by Geirr Tveitt
Conductor:
Clark Rundell
Orchestra/Ensemble:
Royal Northern College of Music Wind Orchestra
Period: 20th Century
Written: 1962; Norway
Date of Recording: 04/2002
Venue: New Broadcasting House, Manchester
2.
A Soldier's Mass by Einojuhani Rautavaara
Conductor:
Clark Rundell
Orchestra/Ensemble:
Royal Northern College of Music Wind Orchestra
Period: 20th Century
Written: 1968; Finland
Date of Recording: 04/2002
Venue: New Broadcasting House, Manchester
Length: 9 Minutes 46 Secs.
3.
Chorali, Op. 22 by Aulis Sallinen
Conductor:
Clark Rundell
Orchestra/Ensemble:
Royal Northern College of Music Wind Orchestra
Period: 20th Century
Written: 1970; Finland
Date of Recording: 04/2002
Venue: New Broadcasting House, Manchester
Length: 9 Minutes 29 Secs.
4.
Sinfonietta di soffiatori, Op. 203 by Geirr Tveitt
Conductor:
Clark Rundell
Orchestra/Ensemble:
Royal Northern College of Music Wind Orchestra
Period: 20th Century
Written: 1962; Norway
Date of Recording: 04/2002
Venue: New Broadcasting House, Manchester
Length: 17 Minutes 18 Secs.
5.
Hommage ŕ Stravinsky by Ole Schmidt
Conductor:
Clark Rundell
Orchestra/Ensemble:
Royal Northern College of Music Wind Orchestra
Period: 20th Century
Written: 1985; Denmark
Date of Recording: 04/2002
Venue: New Broadcasting House, Manchester
Length: 8 Minutes 23 Secs.
6.
Paraphrase on "Nearer my God to Thee," FS 63 by Carl Nielsen
Conductor:
Clark Rundell
Orchestra/Ensemble:
Royal Northern College of Music Wind Orchestra
Period: 20th Century
Written: 1912; Denmark
Date of Recording: 04/2002
Venue: New Broadcasting House, Manchester
Length: 3 Minutes 11 Secs.
7.
Fest-ouverture, Op. 26 by Hugo Alfvén
Conductor:
Clark Rundell
Orchestra/Ensemble:
Royal Northern College of Music Wind Orchestra
Period: 20th Century
Written: 1909; Sweden
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