The music of Finnish composer Kai Nieminen does not conform to any “isms”. He remarks: “I feel like I am a painter in music, who having seen or experienced something attempts to give that something a shape in music.” The flute concerto Palomar was written for Patrick Gallois, soloist and conductor on this disc.
The clarinet concerto Through Shadows I Can Hear Ancient Voices was inspired by the Italian Antonio Tabucchi’s novel Notturno indiano. In Vicoli in ombra we meander through the misty alleys of Rome, encountering strangers.
The clarinet concerto Through Shadows I Can Hear Ancient Voices was inspired by the Italian Antonio Tabucchi’s novel Notturno indiano. In Vicoli in ombra we meander through the misty alleys of Rome, encountering strangers.
"This is wonderfully evocative music, idiomatic and supple, though not quite fitting the “impressionist” label that I was initially considering. Kai Nieminen, guitarist and composer, finds his inspiration often in literary forms, but then chooses not to force the meaning of those forms upon his audience. His music is fantasia-like, but deeper in meaning and more complex than most. The titles serve to provide starting points for the imagination, yet do not intend the music to be followed in a tone-poem manner from reference point to reference point.
He writes very well for his solo instruments, giving them a thorough workout (little rest for the performers in these works) and integrating them with the orchestral textures in a marvelous way. The flute and clarinet concertos are highly sophisticated and unflaggingly interesting, not to mention tuneful and breezily ruminative in nature. While, of course, Debussy haunts the proceedings, I kept thinking of a more sedate version of Ibert as a model. But in many ways, this music transcends either of those folks, and I found every moment quite enjoyable. I need not mention that both Gallois and Raasakka play like the champs they are, and the orchestra is superb.
We get to hear more of the orchestra alone in Alleys in Twilight, a piece that is the first written by the composer for orchestra, and reflects the impressions of a journey through the Trastevere alleys in Rome, winding and branching and leading the traveler to places unforeseen, yet familiar. This piece is airy and full of light, fleeting and delicate, a presage of things to come for this composer.
I cannot imagine anyone who would be less than enthralled by this music." --Fanfare, September 2009
"Concertos are the main event on a new Naxos disc devoted to Kai Nieminen. Patrick Gallois directs the Sinfonia Finlandia Jyvaskyla very neatly and plays the solo role in the euphonious flute concerto Palomar (2001)…Nieminen’s ingratiation of his audience’s ears never compromises his expressive purpose with some deft orchestration—as in the early Vicoli in ombra (1995)." --Gramophone, July 2009
He writes very well for his solo instruments, giving them a thorough workout (little rest for the performers in these works) and integrating them with the orchestral textures in a marvelous way. The flute and clarinet concertos are highly sophisticated and unflaggingly interesting, not to mention tuneful and breezily ruminative in nature. While, of course, Debussy haunts the proceedings, I kept thinking of a more sedate version of Ibert as a model. But in many ways, this music transcends either of those folks, and I found every moment quite enjoyable. I need not mention that both Gallois and Raasakka play like the champs they are, and the orchestra is superb.
We get to hear more of the orchestra alone in Alleys in Twilight, a piece that is the first written by the composer for orchestra, and reflects the impressions of a journey through the Trastevere alleys in Rome, winding and branching and leading the traveler to places unforeseen, yet familiar. This piece is airy and full of light, fleeting and delicate, a presage of things to come for this composer.
I cannot imagine anyone who would be less than enthralled by this music." --Fanfare, September 2009
"Concertos are the main event on a new Naxos disc devoted to Kai Nieminen. Patrick Gallois directs the Sinfonia Finlandia Jyvaskyla very neatly and plays the solo role in the euphonious flute concerto Palomar (2001)…Nieminen’s ingratiation of his audience’s ears never compromises his expressive purpose with some deft orchestration—as in the early Vicoli in ombra (1995)." --Gramophone, July 2009
