Clarinet concerto recording is Gramophone’s ‘Editor’s Choice’

The new clarinet concerto recording (BIS-SACD-1463) of the Lahti Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Chief Conductor Osmo Vänskä, and Swedish clarinettist Martin Fröst is ’Editor’s Choice’ in the May issue of the prestigious Gramophone magazine. The recording consists of clarinet concertos by Carl Nielsen and Kalevi Aho. Critic David Fanning states, that Fröst ‘seems to have Nielsen’s irascible masterpiece in his bloodstream, as surely as he has its technical contortions under his fingers” and that ‘Vänskä ensures that the Lahti players are never fazed by the exposed edges in the accompaniment’. Fanning writes that few would now question the status of the Nielsen as the finest concerto of the 20th century and continues: ‘Time will tell with Kalevi Aho’s concerto in the 21st’. Fanning suggests that in the short term Aho’s concerto will probably daunt as many prospective soloists and orchestras as Nielsen’s work did in its time, but in any case ‘there can have been few equally impressive head-on engagements with the concerto medium in recent years’. The sound quality of the recording Fanning finds ‘immeasurable superior’ and says: ‘In sum, a CD of rare distinction.’

The Lahti Symphony Orchestra published in March 2007 its new recording (BIS-SACD-1463), which consists of clarinet concertos by Carl Nielsen and Kalevi Aho. Osmo Vänskä conducts and the soloist is one of the most interesting clarinettists of our time, Swedish Martin Fröst. The recording is the first recording of the orchestra made with the Super Audio CD technique. Martin Fröst is commissioner of Aho’s concert and he was also soloist in the world première performance of the work in London in the spring 2006 with the BBC Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Osmo Vänskä. The reception of the work was very positive and e.g. the Financial Times wrote: ‘It is not just a showpiece for soloist and orchestra, it is a masterpiece.’ The first performance in Finland will be at the Sibelius Hall in autumn 2007, performed by the Lahti Symphony, Vänskä and Fröst.