Search - Magnus Lindberg, Kaija Saariaho, Bent Sørensen :: From Scandinavia: Music of Lindberg, Saariaho & Tiensuu

Profound inner worlds of sound

R. Hutchinson | a world ruled by fossil fuels and fossil minds | 04/27/2002

(5 out of 5 stars)

""From Scandinavia" is yet another great offering from the Arditti Quartet and the Montaigne label. Before hearing this disc, I had only heard of two of the composers (Saariaho and Lindberg), and had never actually heard anything by any of the four. I can report with pleasure that all four compositions are superb! Magnus Lindberg's "Clarinet Quintet" features his fellow Finn Kari Krikku on clarinet, and it is the only extroverted piece of the set. Rusto Nieminen's liner notes comment that "rich harmonies lend the music a full, orchestral quality" -- indeed, I was reminded of Carter's recent "Clarinet Concerto," with its long, fluid passages. The elegance and ease are positively Mozartean. With Bent Sorensen's "Angel Music," we are plunged into an inner world of sound, the first of three. Concentration reveals utter beauty as "melodic fragments emerge and are reabsorbed," to paraphrase Nieminen. Kaija Saariaho's "Nymphea" employs subtle and ghostly electronic modifications as well as whispered fragments of poetry near the end of the piece. Again, stunning unless you allow your attention to wander! Finally, Jukka Tiensuu's "Arsenic and Old Lace" adds to the string quartet a "microtunally tuned harpsichord," played by the composer. Quite novel, and a complete success. This piece connects the present to the Baroque, and the result is timeless. The symmetry in programming is excellent, opening with the clarinet quintet, and closing with the harpsichord quintet. At one point, upon noting that three of the four compositions here are by Finns, it occurred to me that if a fourth could have been added instead of the piece by Sorensen, a Dane, the set could be called "From Finland" instead of "From Scandinavia." [Nieminen (a Finn!) makes the interesting comment that contemporary Finnish composers "feel [a] compulsion to break with a national tradition seen as overly conventional," referring of course to the vast looming presence of Sibelius.] This disc, though, is wonderful in its own right, and I will indulge in no further second-guessing of those who assembled it!"

Four gems from the frosty, viking-infested north

T. Murphy | San Jose, California United States | 03/09/2002

(5 out of 5 stars)

"These are exceptionally fine performances of quite interesting chamber works. The Arditti are, as usual, top-notch, and the guests, which they bring in for the first and last tracks, are the sort of virtuosi that almost make you uncomfortable with their extreme proficiency. The vocabulary of the music is predominantly atonal (although Arsenic and Old Lace has interesting tonal [microtonal?] inflections), but their overall structures are fairly easily discerned after a few listens. These tracks just get better and better over time. ... Bravo NAIVE/Montaigne for their nice liner notes, aesthetically-pleasing packaging, and catalogue of not-yet-dead composers."

Fine modernist string quartets from northern lands

Christopher Culver | 02/02/2010

(4 out of 5 stars)

"On this Naive disc, a reissue of a mid-1990s release on Montaigne, the Arditti Quartet perform works for string quartet by four Nordic composers. FROM SCANDINAVIA is a bit of a misnomer, as what we have here are three Finns who have long worked together plus one Dane.



Bent Sorensen's "Angels' Music" for string quartet (1987-88) begins with a curtain of microtones, a soundworld so complex that it's hard to believe a mere string quartet could produce this much shimmering. Eventually, quite some time into the piece, this formless mass of microtones lessens to some degree into myriad fragments of melodies. Often I thought of this quartet as microtones meet Ligeti's "Melodien", and at a couple of striking moments in the piece, Schoenberg's "Verklarte Nacht". While this is a fairly early work for Sorensen and comes before the development of his mature style, it nonetheless holds my interest throughout.



Magnus Lindberg's Clarinet Quinet (1992) is exciting. I love Lindberg's music of this era where everything is intently driven by a single musical process towards a fixed goal, but the individual parts are flying all over the place, a very caffeinated soundworld. Here the writing is heavily tilted towards the clarinet, which plays rather lyrical lines and is even left on its own at one point. The strings are the background material, providing harmonic accompaniment and some charming pizzicato. This is, as far as I know, Lindberg's only work using string quartet, and it's interesting to see how his distinctive style is adapted to this very traditional group of instruments. Unfortunately, this particular performance isn't so good. Kari Kriikku, who performs here, is an old chum of Lindberg's and the dedicatee of all his clarinet works, so this performance can be seen as definitive. It certainly beats that by Ictus on a Megadisc release. Incidentally, if you like the Clarinet Quintet, seek out Lindberg's "Away" for orchestra, based on the same material.



Kaija Saariaho's "Nymphea" for string quartet and electronics (1987) is one of the composer's earlier works, though written well after she had joined IRCAM and became influenced by the spectralists. This quartet explores the difference between pure string tones and noise, and the world in between. The electronics provide less a counterbalance to the quartet than an intensification of its material, and at one point fragments of poetry by Arseniy Tarkovsky are recited. I think "Nymphea" is a bit immature compared to her string works of the 1990s like "Amers" and "Sept Papillons", but it is nonetheless an alluring piece, with its hushed, mysterious atmosphere.



Jukka Tiensuu is of roughly the same generation as Saariaho and Lindberg and a fellow modernist, but his microtonal style is unique in Finland. "Arsenic and Old Lace" for microtonally tuned harpsichord and string quartet (1990) is very representative of his output, with its rhythms reminding me mostly of his clarinet concerto "Puro" of the same era. I've listened to a lot of Tiensuu, but I find it very difficult to describe. About the only word I can come up with is "weird", and since I listen to a lot of wacky modernists, that might tell you just how singular Tiensuu is. The composer performs the harpsichord part here.



None of the pieces here are among the very greatest works of these four composers. However, they are all entertaining and the Ardittis give excellent performances. So, if you like these composers, go for it. It's a real shame that this disc, like most of Naive Montaigne's reissues, is now becoming difficult to find. If you are a fan of the composers here, grab it up quick before the few copies available are going for even more."