Composer: Esa-Pekka Salonen, Maurice Ravel
Performer: Nicolas Altstaedt, Pekka Kuusisto
Orchestra: Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra
Conductor: Dima Slobodeniouk
Format: FLAC (tracks)
Label: Alpha
Catalogue: ALPHA627
Release: 2022
Size: 985 MB
Recovery: +3%
Scan: yes
Salonen: Cello Concerto
01. I.
02. II.
03. III.
Ravel: Sonata in A Minor for Violin and Cello, M. 73
04. I. Allegro
05. II. Très vif
06. III. Lent
07. IV. Vif, avec entrain
Nicolas Altstaedt presents here his version of Esa-Pekka Salonen’s monumental Cello Concerto, originally composed for Yo-Yo Ma, and given its Finnish premiere by Altstaedt under the composer’s direction. In partnership with the Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra and conductor Dima Slobodeniouk, he reveals its full expressive dimension here: “The first movement opens with what, in my sketchbook, was called “Chaos to line”’, says Esa-Pekka Salonen. Chaos, a metaphorical comet, a rhythmic mantra with congas and bongos, a wild dance… Salonen goes on to say of the third movement: “I imagined the orchestra as some kind of gigantic lung, expanding and contracting first slowly, but accelerating to a point of mild hyperventilation which leads back to the dance-like material”.
The coupling is the famous Ravel’s Duo (to give it the original title used at its premiere), which Nicolas Altstaedt and Pekka Kuusisto have been performing and refining ever since 2010, and which it was high time to record.