Esa-Pekka SALONEN (b. 1958)
Violin Concerto (2009) [29:04]
Nyx (2010) [19:15]
Leila Josefowicz (violin)
Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra/Esa-Pekka Salonen
rec. Helsinki Music Centre, September 2011 (Nyx) and March 2012 (Violin
Concerto)
DEUTSCHE GRAMMOPHON 479 0628 [48:23]
One often tends to forget that Salonen for all his conducting activities is
also a distinguished composer. His comparatively limited output consists of
painstakingly chiselled works of substance. This recent release offers two
quite recent works composed a couple of years ago.
The Violin Concerto is laid-out in four movements: Mirage, Pulse
I (slow), Pulse II (Scherzo) and Adieu. The first movement
opens in media res with torrents of notes from the soloist mostly
with light and subtle accompaniment: celesta, glockenspiel, harp and vibraphone.
At times, though, the orchestra takes over briefly with weightier, darker
pedal points sometimes swelling to shattering, though short-lived climaxes.
The movement ends unresolved. The ensuing Pulse I is the concerto's
short, slow movement whereas Pulse II is its somewhat longer Scherzo
that “dances and swings like a folk band from an alien planet”. However, the
core and emotional heart of the entire work is the final Adieu, a
beautiful lyrical meditation. It, too, ends unresolved with the music gliding
away calmly.
Salonen's Violin Concerto is clearly of the virtuoso kind but the technical
challenges, though real, are certainly not gratuitous. The music is often
warmly lyrical and quite often beautiful. It is not easy but Leila Josefowicz
rises superbly to the many technical challenges while doing full justice to
the music's real expressive strength. Like some of his Finnish colleagues
such as Lindberg, Kaipainen and – to a certain extent – Saariaho, Salonen's
music has become more readily accessible though it remains technically challenging.
The Violin Concerto is a splendid work that deserves wider exposure and definitely
repays repeated hearings. I hope that this magnificent performance will encourage
many other violinists to investigate it and pick it up in their repertoire.
Nyx is the Greek goddess of night. She is also the mother of sleep and death,
as well as of the sensual pleasures, dreams and day. I draw this piece of
information from the accompanying insert notes. One might thus think that
the work is a Nocturne but Nyx turns out to be a symphonic poem reflecting
the various attributes of the Greek goddess. The work opens with a horn quartet
that immediately suggests a nocturnal and ominous mood. The music opens up
and proceeds in an almost martial mood soon interrupted by a more ruminative
section led by the clarinet. It then moves on through a number of contrasted
episodes by turns dreamy, troubled and menacing.
Salonen's music displays remarkable orchestral mastery, no doubt gained
from his long experience as a conductor. It has much in common with that of
his friends and colleagues whom I mentioned earlier. It is certainly not easy
to play but is eminently accessible, often quite beautiful and strongly expressive.
As might be expected these performances are superb and the recording does
full justice to the music's wide dynamic range. This is thus a self
commending release were it not for its shamefully short playing time of little
under fifty minutes for a full price disc.
Hubert Culot
A splendid release of two recent and substantial works.
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