Composer: Edmund Campion, Giuseppe Colombi, Pascal Dusapin, Ivan Fedele, Luca Francesconi, Vinko Globokar, Kimmo Hakola, Paavo Johannes Heininen, Anders Hillborg, Betsy Jolas, Jouni Ilari Kaipainen, Fred Lerdahl, Magnus Lindberg, Martin Matalon, Colin Matthews, Pablo Ortiz, Veli-Matti Puumala, Roger Reynolds, Kaija Saariaho, Esa-Pekka Salonen, Miroslav Srnka, Steven Edward Stucky, Tan Dun, Jukka Tiensuu, Tapio Tuomela, Rolf Wallin, Ryan Wigglesworth, Joji Yuasa
Performer: Anssi Karttunen
Format: FLAC (tracks)
Label: Toccata
Catalogue: TOCC0171
Release: 2013
Size: 242 MB
Recovery: +3%
Scan: cover
01. Colombi: Ciaccona a basso solo
02. Kaipainen: Anything Goes (after G. Colombi’s Chiacona)
03. Matalon: Polvo (after G. Colombi’s Chiacona)
04. Reynolds: Colombi Daydream (after G. Colombi’s Chiacona)
05. Cohen: Chaconne (after G. Colombi’s Chiacona)
06. Tiensuu: Bleuelein (after G. Colombi’s Chiacona)
07. Stucky: Partite sopra un basso (after G. Colombi’s Chiacona)
08. Salonen: Sarabande per un coyote
09. Campion: Something to Go On (after G. Colombi’s Chiacona)
10. Wallin: Ciacconetta (after G. Colombi’s Chiacona)
11. Ortiz: Paloma (after G. Colombi’s Chiacona)
12. Heininen: Triple antienne (after G. Colombi’s Chiacona)
13. Hillborg: Still and Flow (after G. Colombi’s Chiacona)
14. Lerdahl: There and Back Again (after G. Colombi’s Chiacona)
15. Puumala: … se sillan … (after G. Colombi’s Chiacona)
16. Dusapin: 50 Notes en 3 Variations (after G. Colombi’s Chiacona)
17. Hakola: Colombi Variation (after G. Colombi’s Chiacona)
18. Dun: Chiacona (after G. Colombi’s Chiacona)
19. Neikrug: Tiny Colombi (after G. Colombi’s Chiacona)
20. Yuasa: Locus on Colombi’s Chiacona (after G. Colombi’s Chiacona)
21. Wigglesworth: Arietta (after G. Colombi’s Chiacona)
22. Matthews: Drammatico (after G. Colombi’s Chiacona)
23. Saariaho: Dreaming Chaconne
24. Fedele: Preludio e Ciaccona (after G. Colombi’s Chiacona)
25. Globokar: Idee fixe (after G. Colombi’s Chiacona)
26. Dazzi: Variation sombre e libre d’apres chiacona (after G. Colombi’s Chiacona)
27. Tuomela: Idulla (after G. Colombi’s Chiacona)
28. Jolas: A Fancy for Anssi (after G. Colombi’s Chiacona)
29. Srnka: A Variation (after G. Colombi’s Chiacona)
30. Francesconi: Anssimmetry (after G. Colombi’s Chiacona)
31. Lindberg: Duello (after G. Colombi’s Chiacona)
To celebrate the 50th birthday of the Finnish cellist Anssi Karttunen in 2010 his wife, Muriel von Braun, and colleague and countrywoman Kaija Saariaho wrote to a number of composers with whose music Karttunen had been working. They asked each composer to write a variation on the Chiacona per basso solo by the Italian composer Giuseppe Colombi (1635–94) – perhaps the earliest work in the history of the cello. The composers were not told who else was involved in the project, and Karttunen agreed to perform the music before he had seen it – hence the title, Mystery Variations. These 30 variations thus link the very beginning of the cello repertoire with music by some of the most distinguished composers of the present day. With their distant echo of Beethoven’s 32 ‘Diabelli’ Variations, the Mystery Variations provide a showcase for the extraordinary resourcefulness of contemporary cello technique.