Magnus Lindberg – Viola Concerto, Absence, Serenades
Lawrence Power; Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra; Nicholas Collon;
Ondine ODE 1436-2 (ondine.net/index.php?lid=en&cid=2.2&oid=7270)
If “tradition” was ever a prison for Magnus Lindberg, then he has broken free by scaling its inner dynamic with this remarkable Viola Concerto. He has cast the instrument, often presumed to be in “no-man’s land… between the dazzle of the violin and the warm sonority of the cello” (from the booklet notes) to become an almost new instrument, increasing the scope of its authentic sonority with new malleability in tone textures.
Just as Lindberg’s Viola Concerto delights in testing the soloist’s virtuosity to the limit – a challenge that Lawrence Power successfully negotiates with aplomb, the two other works on this disc – Absence and Serenades – test the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra by manipulating rhythmic intricacies and dense harmonies, also mining a vein of lyricism that opens up unexpected possibilities for something akin to melody.
Absence characterizes the orchestra as one massive voice with myriad individual protagonists each with its own particular character. This generates the work’s momentum.
Serenades puts the ensemble at the centre of gravity of Lindberg’s sense of light, shade, energy and lyricism. With Nicholas Collon at the helm the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra appears to have lived this – and the rest of this music – for decades.
