Sinfonia Lahti, Dima Slobodeniouk – Poulenc, Prokofiev & Britten: Sinfoniettas (2022)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 01:02:23 minutes | 1,08 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Digital Booklet, Front Cover | © BIS
The term sinfonietta is generally used to describe a work that is smaller in scale or lighter in approach than a standard symphony. It only came into common usage during the first half of the 20th century, which is when the three works included on this disc were in fact composed.
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Petri Kumela, Dima Slobodeniouk, Tapiola Sinfonietta – Exquisitely Absurd – FInnish guitar concertos (2023)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 01:02:52 minutes | 979 MB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Alba
Three new guitar concertos from Finland’s foremost composers! This album is in many ways a celebration of collaboration. All the concertos on the recording have been composed for Petri Kumela and he has already worked together a lot with each composer. Kumela has been actively involved in the composition processes of all concerts. Tapiola Sinfonietta and Dima Slobodeniouk are also familiar partners of Kumela.
Read moreNicolas Altstaedt, Pekka Kuusisto, Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra, Dima Slobodeniouk – Salonen: Cello Concerto & Ravel: Sonata for Violin and Cello (2022)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 57:20 minutes | 978 MB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Alpha Classics
Nicolas Altstaedt presents here his version of Esa-Pekka Salonen’s monumental Cello Concerto, originally composed for Yo-Yo Ma, and given its Finnish premiere by Altstaedt under the composer’s direction. In partnership with the Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra and conductor Dima Slobodeniouk, he reveals its full expressive dimension here: “The first movement opens with what, in my sketchbook, was called “Chaos to line”’, says Esa-Pekka Salonen. Chaos, a metaphorical comet, a rhythmic mantra with congas and bongos, a wild dance… Salonen goes on to say of the third movement: “I imagined the orchestra as some kind of gigantic lung, expanding and contracting first slowly, but accelerating to a point of mild hyperventilation which leads back to the dance-like material”.
The coupling is the famous Ravel’s Duo (to give it the original title used at its premiere), which Nicolas Altstaedt and Pekka Kuusisto have been performing and refining ever since 2010, and which it was high time to record.
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Lahti Symphony Orchestra, Dima Slobodeniouk – Scenes from the Kalevala (2021)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 01:10:27 minutes | 1,14 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © BIS
The Kalevala is a compilation of mostly original folk poetry, arranged into fifty extensive runos (“poems”) by the Finnish physician and folklorist Elias Lönnrot. Beginning with the creation of the world, it develops into a series of separate episodes which nevertheless form a rich whole, introducing epic characters such as Väinämöinen, Lemminkäinen and Kullervo. The collection first appeared in 1835, with a final, extended version being published in 1849, and was soon hailed as Finland’s “national epos” – a sensitive matter given that the country had been subjected to Russian rule since 1809. It came to play a major part in Finland’s national awakening and had a massive influence on Finnish art in the late 19th century, but its role in the national consciousness remains important even today.
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