Oulu Sinfonia & Rumon Gamba - Pictures from Finland (2025)

Conductor Rumon Gamba has been particularly known for his interest in film music. He has also conducted modern symphonic works – from Britain and beyond – and branched out into opera. The size of Gamba's recording catalog is notable, and that catalog contains music of many different genres. In the 2020s, he led the BBC Philharmonic on a series of recordings of the orchestral music of Ruth Gipps (1921-1999); that series reached its fourth volume by 2025.

Gamba was born in Britain on November 24, 1972. He attended Durham University, studying music, and went on for conducting studies at London's Royal Academy of Music. His principal teacher was Colin Metters, but he also worked with Sir Colin Davis, Martyn Brabbins, and Mark Wigglesworth, among others. Winning several prizes at the Royal Academy, Gamba began his conducting career as assistant conductor at the Havant Symphony Orchestra and the British Youth Opera. After several successful festival appearances, he broke through in 1998 with a win at the Lloyds Bank BBC Young Musicians Conductors Workshop competition in Manchester. The competition win brought with it a BBC Philharmonic assistant conductorship and many appearances around Britain, as well as guest conducting appearances with the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic and BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra. Gamba made his recording debut in 1999 on the album The Film Music of Georges Auric. In 2002, Gamba became conductor and music director of the Iceland Symphony Orchestra, remaining there until 2010. Following that engagement, he moved to Sweden and took dual posts as music director of the Norrlands Opera and as conductor at Denmark's Aalborg Symphony Orchestra. As an opera conductor, he has favored new music, conducting the world premiere of Nico Muhly's Two Boys with the English National Opera in 2011.

Many of his recordings have been made with the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra and other British groups for the Chandos Movies imprint; later releases appeared in the main Chandos catalog. Gamba's 2006 release The Film Music of Erich Wolfgang Korngold earned a Grammy Award nomination in the U.S. He has recorded symphonic music by Vincent d'Indy with the Iceland Symphony Orchestra and symphonies of Malcolm Arnold with the BBC Philharmonic. In 2019, with the BBC Philharmonic, he released a recording of film music by composer Gerard Schurmann. In 2022, Gamba became the chief conductor of Finland's Oulu Symphony Orchestra, and later that year, he conducted the BBC Philharmonic on the album Ruth Gipps: Orchestral Works, Vol. 2. With the Oulu Symphony, he released the album Overtures from Finland in 2023. The Gipps series on Chandos reached its fourth volume in 2025, and by that time, Gamba's recording catalog comprised some 50 albums.

TRACKLIST

1. Oulu Sinfonia & Rumon Gamba - Palmgren: Pictures from Finland, Op. 24: I. Dreams in Spring
2. Oulu Sinfonia & Rumon Gamba - Palmgren: Pictures from Finland, Op. 24: II. Minuet in Popular Style
3. Oulu Sinfonia & Rumon Gamba - Palmgren: Pictures from Finland, Op. 24: III. Dance of the Falling Leaves
4. Oulu Sinfonia & Rumon Gamba - Palmgren: Pictures from Finland, Op. 24: IV. Sleigh Ride
5. Oulu Sinfonia & Rumon Gamba - Madetoja: Suite pastorale, Op. 34: I. Aamu (Morning)
6. Oulu Sinfonia & Rumon Gamba - Madetoja: Suite pastorale, Op. 34: II. Caprice
7. Oulu Sinfonia & Rumon Gamba - Madetoja: Suite pastorale, Op. 34: III. Legenda (Legend)
8. Oulu Sinfonia & Rumon Gamba - Madetoja: Suite pastorale, Op. 34: IV. Valssi (Waltz)
9. Oulu Sinfonia & Rumon Gamba - Raitio: Idylli (Idyll)
10. Oulu Sinfonia & Rumon Gamba - Kajanus: Adagietto
11. Oulu Sinfonia & Rumon Gamba - Raitio: Scherzo ‘Felis domestica'
12. Oulu Sinfonia & Rumon Gamba - Sibelius: Kurkikohtaus, Op. 44 No. 2 (Scene with Cranes)
13. Oulu Sinfonia & Rumon Gamba - Kajanus: Suomalainen rapsodia No. 2, Op. 8 (Finnish Rhapsody)
14. Oulu Sinfonia & Rumon Gamba - Madetoja: Marian murhe, Op. 27 No. 2 (Stabat Mater)