JAAKKO KUUSISTO (b.1974): Play II for String Trio and Piano, Op. 16, (Jaako Kuusisto [violin], Riitta-Liisa Ristiluoma [viola], Jan-Erik Gustafsson [cello], Heini Kärkkäinen [piano]), Play III for String Quartet, Op. 21 (Meta4), Valo for Violin and Piano, Op. 23 (Kuusisto [violin], Paavali Jumppanen [piano]), Jurmo for Piano, Op. 31 (Jumppanen), Loisto for Violin and Piano, Op. 12 (Kuusisto [violin], Kärkkäinen [piano]).

Description: The idea of 'play' is key to the appreciation of Kuusisto's idiom; his music is, in a word, playful. Not frivolous, lightweight or devoid of passion or intensity, but with an exuberant sense of delight in the virtuosic exercise of craftsmanship. The idiom is predominantly tonal, with quicksilver shifts between moods and mainstream twentieth century styles; the important violin solo in Play III is very Sibelian, but elsewhere traces of French impressionism, Prokofiev and early and neoclassical Stravinsky periodically surface. Loisto begins with, and builds its material from an entirely out of character derivation of the opening of Le sacre; for no good reason other than that it fits and is amusing, a reference to Ravel's Rhapsodie espagnole appears and disappears in Play II. Here and there - parts of Valo, otherwise a Debussyan rhapsody in whole-tone scales which turns into a Prokofiev-like toccata; the middle section of Jurmo - he appropriates the insistent repetitive rhythms of early minimalism. Play III unexpectedly becomes a vigorous dance; Play II starts with a chase scene from some imaginary film, turns into a tortured tango heard through closed doors, fades into eerie nocturnal textures and ends with an impassioned, obsessive climax. Nothing is stable or predictable, which lends these accessible but stimulating jeux d'esprit much of their quirky charm.