Lindberg, M.: Feria / Corrente II / Arena (Finnish Radio Symphony, Saraste)

Feria is the most satisfying of the three accomplished works on this disc. It's not difficult to see why this is one of Lindberg's most popular pieces, and in 20 years' time I wouldn't be surprised if this was seen as one of the seminal works of the 1990s. The opening fanfare is thrilling, and pulls you into a riveting twenty minutes' listening. It's one of Lindberg's best-conceived pieces, structurally speaking, and the orchestration is really magnificent, full of interesting textures.

Corrente II is a sort of rhythmic study, overlaying different ostinatos in a manner resembling Steve Reich, but rather more sophisticated; and Arena is a virtuosic orchestral toccata which certainly bears repeated hearing. This is a great disc for listeners new to Lindberg's music, as it gives an accurate picture of the composer at his most orchestrally inventive. Performance and recording are excellent.

This Ondine disc contains three orchestral pieces by Finnish composer Magnus Lindberg performed by the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra conducted by Jukka-Pekka Saraste. The style of Lindberg's youth was thoroughly avant-garde, and concerned with unusual instrumentation and rhythms, culminating with the massive "Kraft" for avant-garde ensemble and orchestra in 1985. After a three year hiatus, Lindberg returned in at the turn of the 90's with the trilogy "Kinetics"-"Marea"-"Joy" (also available on Ondine) where his main interest was now building up giant yet well-organised harmonies within the limits of traditional instrumentation. The three works here, "Feria", "Corrente II", and "Arena", continue this line of investigation.

"Feria" (1997) takes its title from the Spanish word for an outdoor festival or fair and, says Lindberg, the festive nature and exhuberance of the piece is meant to "herald a lively public spectacle." It is composed of two busy sections and between them a slower-paced (but little is truly slow with Linderg) section that contains a chord progression from Monteverdi's "Lasciatemi morire (Lament of Arianna)", as well as some lovely pizzicato playing. The listener is awed by the immense orchestral forces constantly at play; ironically, the work had its genesis in a chamber piece, but Lindberg was too tempted to involve an entire symphony orchestra, which Lindberg calls his "favourite instrument". It should be noted that this piece forms a "symphonic triptych" with "Parada" (2001) and "Cantigas" (1997-1999), both available on a must-have Sony disc and the latter of which is possibly Lindberg's finest work to date.

"Corrente II" for symphony orchestra (1992) is an expanded version of "Corrente" (available on an earlier Ondine disc) for ensemble of 16 instruments (1991), and Lindberg says that the new orchestration is like viewing an object from afar instead of up close, since many details are lost but the general structure of the work is clearer. One new element that is immediately recognisable is the great role of percussion in the beginning. The fragment of Purcell which gave such an usual touch to the original appears more often here.

"Arena" (1995) was written for the Jean Sibelius International Conducting Competition, and is therefore full of challenging changes in tempo and multiple layers of sound. Like "Feria", much of the music is based on toying with a brief motif and frequent trumpet fanfares (perhaps explaining the piece's title), compelling engine-like moments first on low instruments and later on high winds, and even elements of true melody (which are rare in his later ouput). This is the strongest piece on the disc, and one of Lindberg's all-time standouts.

Though Lindberg's most accessible piece is probably "Cantigas", the rest of the material on that Sony disc is sub-par, and so I think this Ondine disc is probably the single best introduction to the work of this Finnish genius, and I recommend it without hestitate to any fan of contemporary music.

you at first are overwhelmed by Lindberg's orchestrations, but then he keeps his timbres on a short leash, allowing rhythms snappy kinds of gestures to direct things and push things around. Sometimes Lindberg pounces on quite powerful moments but it seems as a listener we pay for them by sitting through more relatively light weight stuff. "Feria" is a Fest idea for those who work they get one day off, as I guess some of us still do, others to make the dream come true continue to work for surplus profit. I would think if you think of orchestrations on a grand scale it should be closer to nature,timbre is equivalent to materials,to impounded steel, copper, zinc, or wood, natural elements, and you see magnificent shapes as Serra's "torqued ellipsis" and say, "why can't the orchestra play like that!", well Lindberg seems to be not too many miles away from this, he needs to get more serious I suspect. Stravinsky taught all of us how to orchestrate and we are still learning,only we get stuck on the facile certainly American orchestrators as Adams and Kernis,Glass can't live without the facile in their work to help direct it around,and make the listening experience more pleasurable, "tell them what they want to hear,please",like scholars today speaking about the Middle East. Lindberg also tells us what we want to hear, instead music should cross borders to be art.conceptual ones,Border crossings occurred in Stravinsky as did Schoenberg, for a time,(until he came to America) Berg,etcetra etcetra.