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Listening to Some Aspects of Peltoniemi Hintrik’s Funeral March, Sallinen’s 1981 transcription of his Third Quartet for string orchestra, I found myself frequently reminded of early Britten – particularly the Britten of the Frank Bridge Variations. Something of this recurs at times in both the concertante items here, Chamber Music II and III, though it is fair to say that Britten never showed the kind of skittish humour Sallinen displays so effectively in the latter piece. Indeed, there is something deliciously subversive about The Nocturnal Dances of Don Juanquixote (1986), a feature Thedeen on BIS relishes rather more than Rondin here. There is a similar reserve – perhaps deriving from Kamu’s chamber-music approach, which some may feel to be just the more definitive given his long-standing association with the composer, as opposed to Vanska’s more ‘orchestral’ manner – in the otherwise delightful playing of Hanna Juutilainen in Chamber Music II (1975-6). This is the third recording of the work, Kamu having already set it down with the dedicatee, Gunilla von Bahr – again on BIS, and coupled with Chamber Music I of 1975. Naxos’s sound is predictably drier than the rival BIS accounts, most notably in Some Aspects and Nocturnal Dances, which were both recorded in the same venue: Tapiola Hall in Espoo. |
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