Kersten McCall, Finnish RSO, Dima Slobodeniouk - Lotta Wennäkoski: Soie; Hava; Amor Omnia Suite (2015)

This new recording on Ondine includes new orchestral works by Lotta Wennäkoski (b. 1970). Wennäkoski's works are characterised by a rich and colourful sound world that often incorporates unconventional playing techniques and noise. In recent years her range of expression has become gradually broader, deeper and more powerful.

Soie is a concertante work commissioned by the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra for flute and orchestra in three movements and placed on the list of recommended works at the UNESCO International Rostrum of Composers. The soloist of the work is Kersten McCall, the principal flutist of the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra. Hava is an orchestral piece commissioned by the Tapiola Sinfonietta and premiered at the orchestra's 20th anniversary concert in January 2008. Amor Omnia is a silent film score of 90 minutes' length and Wennäkoski's most extensive work to date. In 2014, Wennäkoski adapted a concert suite from her film score, the Amor Omnia Suite.

Wennäkoski is among the leading Finnish composers of her generation. Wennäkoski made her debut as a composer in 1999. Wennäkoski studied first violin, music theory and Hungarian folk music in the Béla Bartók Conservatory in Budapest and got her diploma from the Sibelius Academy in 2000. Her main composition teachers have been Eero Hämeenniemi, Kaija Saariaho and Paavo Heininen. In 1998-99 Wennäkoski studied in the Netherlands with Louis Andriessen.

The recent recordings of the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra on Ondine have gathered excellent reviews in the international press.

This album marks the debut of conductor Dima Slobodeniouk on Ondine. Slobodeniouk combines his native Russian roots with his years of musical studies in Finland, now his home for over two decades. Drawing together the powerful musical strengths of these countries places Slobodeniouk as one of today's younger generation of deeply informed and intelligent artistic leaders on the podium. In February 2013 Dima Slobodeniouk was appointed Music Director of the Orquesta Sinfónica de Galicia.

Lotta Wennäkoski is a new name to the MWI site, but her music has the confident sheen of a highly experienced composer. She studied with the likes of Kaija Saariaho and Louis Andriessen, but while there are inevitable eclectic comparisons to be made with other contemporary composers the immediate impression gained is of a solidly individual voice. Wennäkoski herself says “I am inspired not just by music for its own sake; I like to take impulses from the outside world too.”

Soie is a superb vehicle for the virtuoso playing of flautist Kersten McCall. The title means ‘silk’ in French, and aside from the more Andriessen-like hammer blows of the brief central movement Lin gros or ‘rough linen’, the filigree intensity of the orchestration is remarkably representative of “light, translucent, billowing fabric” in the swiftly changing slides and gestures of Voile, the first and longest movement. Anyone looking for a demonstration of flute glissandi can take this as a prime example. The eponymous final movement has a more meditative, zen quality; the cadenza like flute part given vast space over the almost invisible brushstrokes of the orchestra.

Hava turns out to be the Hungarian word for ‘snow’, but has associations in Finnish with words meaning ‘rustling’ or ‘alertness’. The starting point was the desire to write a “fast texture piece”, and the racy pace and constantly shifting colours certainly deliver in this regard. Texture is important, but this is by no means an aleatoric work. Everything is detailed and through-composed, perhaps something like a Sibelius symphony viewed through a time-lapse sequence of photography. The penultimate quiet section is strikingly atmospheric.

The Amor Omnia Suite derives from music for a film directed by Konrad Tallroth which tells a deeply tragic love story. The ‘suite’ actually joins scenes together to form a single-movement work, its suspenseful feel heightened by whispered words from the orchestra. Wennäkoski remains true to her idiom in making this film score, while at the same time avoiding something that would ‘overwhelm the visual narrative’. Such a love story could easily dip into sentimentality, but this is also avoided even with glorious, sweeping passages that have a clear emotional message. The final moments are very moving indeed. Hearing such a think makes one want to see the film to see how the music connects with the narrative, in part since there are no real clues other than one’s own imagination to fill in where things may fit.

It is sometimes difficult to pin reference points onto new music, so you have some idea of what to expect. One or two names spring to mind including Rautavaara and Berio, but then again these are impressions at fleeting moments in which the worlds of different composers coincide. Either way, if you enjoy a well-crafted and imaginatively challenging musical landscape then this will be something to relish. Everything is superbly performed and recorded, and the booklet has notes in English and Finnish.

Review by Dominy Clements, MusicWeb-International.com

Finnish composer Lotta Wennäkoski has made a major addition to the flute concerto repertoire with Soie (2009). Its three movements are named after fabrics, and the music both evokes and rubs up against their textures. Voile has the billowing, tumbling flute played with fluttering and note-bending effects, echoed and egged on by the rest of the orchestra. Roughness and weight are less given to being evoked by this instrument, but in Lin Gros (rough linen), Wennäkoski manages it, with flautist Kersten McCall pushing his instrument to the edge; the title movement is a darkly atmospheric finale. The restless orchestral work Hava comes from a similar sound-world. There is also a suite adapted from the score Wennäkoski wrote to be played alongside the tragic 1922 silent film Amor Omnia. Dima Slobodeniouk and the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra are persuasive advocates for a composer with ideas and a distinctive way of voicing them.

Review by Erica Jeal, The Guardian

Kersten McCall, flute
Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra
Dima Slobodeniouk, conductor

rec. 2014, Helsinki Music Centre, Finland.

Tracklist:

Lotta WENNÄKOSKI (b. 1970)

Soie (2009) for flute and orchestra
01. I. Voile (10:04)
02. II. Lin gros (1:27)
03. III. Soie (7:08)

04. Hava (2007) (10:11)

05. Amor Omnia Suite (2014) (26:31)