AULIS SALLINEN (b.1935): Concerto for Clarinet, Viola and Chamber Orchestra, Op. 91, PETER EÖTVÖS (b.1944): Levitation for 2 Clarinets and Strings, CARL NIELSEN (1865-1931): Clarinet Concerto, Op. 57.

Description: Eötvös' four short movements form a kind of contradiction in terms; avant garde light music. Picturesque images of floating and flying are depicted in boldly coloristic, highly descriptive music. The pieces manage to be entertaining and humorous, with vividly graphic effects, while remaining uncompromisingly modern in idiom. The finale is a gleeful romp around Stravinsky's Petrushka. The Sallinen consists of three movements with programmatic subtexts related to the animal world. The idiom is the composer's characteristic ambiguous tonality, the vocabulary of late Busoni. 'The Dolphin's Lament' is a sombre, surging elegy, interrupted by a lively, agitated central section, beginning and ending with an elegiac accompanied duet for the soloists. 'Les jeux' is a scherzo on the subject of 'play' - that of gamboling animals and exuberant musicians (including composers; Sallinen's cadenzas for a Telemann concerto make a cameo appearance) alike. An unexpectedly gentle, poignant adagio concludes the concerto with a somewhat Sibelian Valse triste atmosphere, briefly interrupted by a strident martial section with clattering castanets; here the message is of protest against the killing of animals for sport, especially in bullfighting. Christoffer Sundqvist (clarinet), Kullervo Kojo (second clarinet), Tommi Aalto (viola), Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra; Hannu Lintu, Okko Kamu (Sallinen). SACD hybrid.