Lahti Symphony Orchestra, Dalia Stasevska – Stormskerry Maja (OST) (2024) [Official Digital Download 24bit/96kHz]

Lahti Symphony Orchestra, Dalia Stasevska – Stormskerry Maja (OST) (2024)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 50:29 minutes | 966 MB | Genre: Classical, Soundtrack
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Platoon

Platoon will release a soundtrack album for the Finnish period drama Stormskerry Maja. The album features the film’s original music composed by Lauri Porra (Rat King, Heavy Trip) and performed by the Lahti Symphony Orchestra conducted by Dalia Stasevska.

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Lahti Symphony Orchestra & Dalia Stasevska – Helvi Leiviskä: Orchestral Works Vol. 1 (2023) [Official Digital Download 24bit/96kHz]

Lahti Symphony Orchestra & Dalia Stasevska – Helvi Leiviskä: Orchestral Works Vol. 1 (2023)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 01:02:37 minutes | 1,07 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © BIS

Conductor Dalia Stasevka who received the BBC Music Magazine’s ‘Personality of the Year’ Award in 2023 and the Lahti Symphony Orchestra present three works by the Finnish composer Helvi Leiviska, who was Finland’s first major female composer. Initially inspired by the language of late Romanticism – she mentioned Brahms as her favourite composer – Leiviska developed an original, modern style that eschewed all schools, convinced that it was more important to tread one’s own path than to follow fashionable styles. While her output may seem small in terms of quantity, it more than makes up for it in the quality of the works, especially her symphonies, a genre she considered ‘the highest manifestation of music’. This disc presents three works: the Sinfonia Brevis, a confidently crafted work reminiscent of Sibelius; the austere, restrained, melancholy and at times very dissonant Symphony No. 2, which could be called ‘tragic’; and the Suite for orchestra No. 2, which uses material from a powerfully descriptive score originally composed for a film. This recording bears witness to the ‘Leiviska renaissance’ that has taken place in recent years, which has contributed to the rediscovery of a neglected but important voice in Finnish music.

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Lahti Symphony Orchestra – Helvi Leiviskä Orchestral Works Vol. 1 (2023) [24Bit-96kHz] FLAC [PMEDIA] ⭐️

Lahti Symphony Orchestra - Helvi Leiviskä Orchestral Works Vol. 1 (2023) [24Bit-96kHz] FLAC [PMEDIA] ⭐️ Download

Lahti Symphony Orchestra – Helvi Leiviskä: Orchestral Works Vol. 1 (2023)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 01:02:37 minutes | 1,07 GB | Genre: Classique
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Digital Booklet, Front Cover

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Lahti Symphony Orchestra, Okko Kamu – Sibelius: The Tempest, The Bard & Tapiola (2011) [Official Digital Download 24bit/44,1kHz]

Lahti Symphony Orchestra, Okko Kamu – Sibelius: The Tempest, The Bard & Tapiola (2011)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/44,1 kHz | Time – 01:11:41 minutes | 592 MB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © BIS Records AB

To many, the Lahti Symphony Orchestra has become synonymous with excellence in Sibelius repertoire. Its numerous recordings with the previous chief conductor Osmo Vänskä have received countless distinctions and awards, and the orchestra is universally regarded as having a very special affinity for the music of their great compatriot.

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Lahti Symphony Orchestra, Okko Kamu – Sibelius: The Tempest, The Bard & Tapiola (2011) MCH SACD ISO

Lahti Symphony Orchestra, Okko Kamu – Sibelius: The Tempest, The Bard & Tapiola (2011)
PS3 Rip | SACD ISO | DST64 2.0 & DST64 5.0 > 1-bit/2.8224 MHz | Digital Booklet | 3.18 GB
© BIS Records AB | Recorded: January 2011 at the Sibelius Hall, Lahti, Finland

To many, the Lahti Symphony Orchestra has become synonymous with excellence in Sibelius repertoire. Its numerous recordings with the previous chief conductor Osmo Vänskä have received countless distinctions and awards, and the orchestra is universally regarded as having a very special affinity for the music of their great compatriot.

(more…)

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Lahti Symphony Orchestra, Osmo Vanska – Sibelius Lemminkäinen Suite, The Wood Nymph (2014) [Official Digital Download 24bit/44,1kHz]

Lahti Symphony Orchestra, Osmo Vanska – Sibelius Lemminkäinen Suite, The Wood Nymph (2014)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/44,1 kHz | Time – 01:09:37 minutes | 621 MB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © BIS

Jean Sibelius is best known for his seven symphonies and violin concerto – two genres usually thought of as ‘absolute music’. But in 1894, well before he composed his first symphony, Sibelius described himself in quite different terms: ‘really I am a tone painter and poet’. It was around this time that he was working on the two works presented here, both tone poems which spring from an extra-musical inspiration. The source of the Lemminkäinen Suite is the Finnish national epic Kalevala, and its four movements – of which especially The Swan of Tuonela is often performed separately – tell of the adventures of the young hero Lemminkäinen: his amorous escapades on a paradisiacal island peopled only by women, his journey to the land of the dead (Tuonela) and how he himself dies there only to be brought back to life by his mother’s magic spells; and finally his return home after a long series of wars and battles. The Kalevala furnished Sibelius with the subjects of many other compositions, but for The Wood-Nymph, it was a poem by the Swedish poet Viktor Rydberg that provided the inspiration – the story of a carefree young man who, lost in a forest, encounters a nymph and is seduced by her, only to realize that the incident has cost him any chance of worldly happiness. Although Sibelius’ tone poem was warmly received at its première in 1895, it was not published in the composer’s lifetime, and soon disappeared from the concert repertoire. The first complete performance of the work in almost 100 years took place only in 1996, with the performers on this disc, a team which has become almost synonymous with top-flight idiomatic Sibelius performances.

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Andrei Korobeinikov, Mikhail Gaiduk, Lahti Symphony Orchestra and Okko Kamu – Dmitri Chostakovitch: Concertos pour piano n ° 1 et 2, Vingt-quatre Préludes, opus 34 (2011) [Official Digital Download 24bit/44,1kHz]

Andrei Korobeinikov, Mikhail Gaiduk, Lahti Symphony Orchestra and Okko Kamu – Dmitri Chostakovitch: Concertos pour piano n ° 1 et 2, Vingt-quatre Préludes, opus 34 (2011)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/44,1 kHz | Time – 01:18:08 minutes | 625 MB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Mirare

The program of this album of music by Shostakovich (or, since you are dealing with a French release here, “Chostakovich”) is heterogenous, consisting of the two piano concertos plus the 24 Preludes, Op. 34. So, too, are the performances. You may or may not like the album from start to finish, but Russian pianist Andrei Korobeinikov deserves credit for covering some well-trodden ground and blazing fresh paths. Herewith: one listener’s ranking. Korobeinikov’s recording of the Piano Concerto No. 2 in F major, Op. 102, is one of the very best available, and for this he shares the credit with conductor Okko Kamu and Finland’s superbly agile Lahti Symphony Orchestra. Shostakovich himself disparaged this work, which was written for his son, Maxim. Due to that criticism (which really ought not to be trusted any more than other statements by composers subject to moods of the moment) and to its rather conservative language, this concerto has often gotten short shrift from performers, who take very fast tempos and tend to treat it as a kind of technical exercise. This is one of the few performances (Leonard Bernstein’s classic reading with the New York Philharmonic is another, but this one is perhaps even more detailed) to slow down and let the music’s considerable sprightly grace emerge. The Concerto No. 1 for piano, trumpet, and orchestra in C minor, Op. 35, is hardly less satisfying, with an expansive reading and some very fine trumpet tone from Mikhail Galduk. In both of these performances Korobeinikov and Kamu execute fine realizations of models that, while not exactly common, have been done before. The 24 Preludes, Op. 34, are another story entirely. Part of the genius of these pieces from the early 1930s, and of the later 24 Preludes and Fugues, Op. 87, is that they pay tribute to the past without being “neo-classic” works; they contain elements of Chopin’s preludes and of Bach’s without really resembling either one. Korobeinikov, however, pushes them into the Chopin mold, with massive tempo fluctuations, heavy use of the pedals, and in general a heavily Romantic approach. The reading somehow seems not of a piece with the rest of the album, which suggests the degree of the excellent Okko Kamu’s influence, and it doesn’t quite fit with the rest of the musical personality of the young Shostakovich. But it is fresh, and it merits consideration, especially where there is a very compelling reason, in the form of the Piano Concerto No. 2, to add this well-recorded album to one’s Shostakovich shelf. – James Manheim

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Lahti Symphony Orchestra, Osmo Vänskä – Sibelius: Lemminkäinen Suite, The Wood Nymph (2014) [Official Digital Download 24bit/44,1kHz]

Lahti Symphony Orchestra, Osmo Vänskä – Sibelius: Lemminkäinen Suite, The Wood Nymph (2014)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/44,1 kHz | Time – 01:09:37 minutes | 585 MB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © BIS Records AB

Jean Sibelius is best known for his seven symphonies and violin concerto – two genres usually thought of as ‘absolute music’. But in 1894, well before he composed his first symphony, Sibelius described himself in quite different terms: ‘really I am a tone painter and poet’. It was around this time that he was working on the two works presented here, both tone poems which spring from an extra-musical inspiration. The source of the Lemminkäinen Suite is the Finnish national epic Kalevala, and its four movements – of which especially The Swan of Tuonela is often performed separately – tell of the adventures of the young hero Lemminkäinen: his amorous escapades on a paradisiacal island peopled only by women, his journey to the land of the dead (Tuonela) and how he himself dies there only to be brought back to life by his mother’s magic spells; and finally his return home after a long series of wars and battles. The Kalevala furnished Sibelius with the subjects of many other compositions, but for The Wood-Nymph, it was a poem by the Swedish poet Viktor Rydberg that provided the inspiration – the story of a carefree young man who, lost in a forest, encounters a nymph and is seduced by her, only to realize that the incident has cost him any chance of worldly happiness. Although Sibelius’ tone poem was warmly received at its première in 1895, it was not published in the composer’s lifetime, and soon disappeared from the concert repertoire. The first complete performance of the work in almost 100 years took place only in 1996, with the performers on this disc, a team which has become almost synonymous with top-flight idiomatic Sibelius performances.

(more…)

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Lahti Symphony Orchestra & Jaakko Kuusisto – Lauri Porra: Entropia (2018) [Official Digital Download 24bit/96kHz]

Lahti Symphony Orchestra & Jaakko Kuusisto – Lauri Porra: Entropia (2018)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 01:23:18 minutes | 1,45 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © BIS

Great-grandson of composer Jean Sibelius, Lauri Porra began playing the cello at the age of six, but later switched to bass guitar. In addition to his work as a composer for orchestra, film and media, he is a member of the heavy metal band Stratovarius with which he has recorded four albums and performed concerts in over 60 countries. Highly versatile, Porra also leads his own Lauri Porra Flyover Ensemble, combining musical styles ranging from rock and jazz to classical, electronic and film music. Entropia, his concerto for electric bass and orchestra, was premièred by the composer and the Lahti Symphony Orchestra at the concert that opened the 2015 season, Jean Sibelius’s 150th anniversary year. On this recording, the concerto is preceded by the three-part Domino Suite, which features substantial solos for piano and jazz drum set. Always open to new collaborations, Porra has also worked with Finnish rapper Paperi T (Henri Pulkkinen) on Kohta, a piece commissioned by the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra. The work also exists in an instrumental version and these two incarnations open and close the amply-filled (+83 minutes!) album.

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Lahti Symphony Orchestra, Dima Slobodeniouk – Scenes from the Kalevala (2021) [Official Digital Download 24bit/96kHz]

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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Jaakko Kuusisto, Lahti Symphony Orchestra, Osmo Vänskä – Einojuhani Rautavaara: The Journey (2004) [Official Digital Download 24bit/44,1kHz]

Jaakko Kuusisto, Lahti Symphony Orchestra, Osmo Vänskä – Einojuhani Rautavaara: The Journey (2004)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/44,1 kHz | Time – 56:41 minutes | 510 MB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © BIS

Einojuhani Rautavaara, the grand old man of Finnish music, became instantly famous when his 7th Symphony, Angel of Light (BIS-CD- 1038), became a great success in Europe and the USA. The composer’s highly individual mix of modernism, mystical romanticism and love of the natural world has struck a deep chord with the audiences, and what in a Gramophone review of a recent disc of his songs (BIS-CD-1141) was called “Rautavaara’s genius as a communicator” will be obvious in the present programme too.

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