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Elegie For String Orchestra

Siri Brander (1866-1934) was one of the first female composers to be played by the Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra. Elegie (originally for piano) was arranger for string orchestra by A. E. Westerlind and first performed in 1894. More than 120 years later it was recovered in the archives. The small treasure of pure salon romanticism has the duration of 4 minutes. The package includes a full score and a set of string parts (2+2.3.2.2.1).

String Quartet No. 2 : Allerheiligentag Iii

Jyrki Linjama's second string quartet (2018) is subtitled Allerheiligentag III. The material for the Allerheiligentag cycle is a Finnish folk chorale for All Saints' Day (no. 146 in the Finnish Hymn Book). The first work in the cycle is a string trio (2007), the second a piece for orchestra (2009), and the fourth and fifth are solo works for viola da gamba and violin.The composer tells: “The choice of topic and material for the string trio was originally prompted by the venue at which it was to be premiered: the old church on the island of Seili (Själö). The bleak history of the island's leper and mental hospital evoked images of suffering and death. I got so attached to the harshand beautiful melody that it began to generate a whole cycle.” The string quartet is in three movements (slow-quick-slow) tensed in different ways by contrasts. The first movement has both swinging softness and cutting sharpness, the Scherzo the wildness of a dance of death and lyricism, and the finale the irrevocability of a funeral march and tender melodiousness.

String Quartet No. 1

Aarre Merikanto (1893–1958) composed his string sextet in 1932 for the competition of Library of Congress, Washington. The work was however not accepted because it was sent without the performance material, after which Merikanto cut out many segments. In 1993 Paavo Heininen completed the 22-minute work.

String Quartet No. 4

According to Jouni Kaipainen, the fourth string quartet (2006) is one of key works of Seppo Pohjola (b. 1965) and holds a place as a landmark in Finnish quartet literature. Of the composer's five string quartets, it is the longest and has the widest thematic arcs of his quartets. Seppo Pohjola has gone through a variety of styles in his musical career. He began as a strict Modernist, progressed towards Expressionism and took on board Romantic influences before ending up in the early 2000s in (a reformed brand of) Modernism again. Osmo Tapio Räihälä describes the end result thus: “The ‘new' Pohjola often anchors his style in a frenetic pulse through which he builds musicalprocesses.” Duration c. 33 minutes. Score (A4) and parts (B4).

String Quartet No. 1 (1967)

Kalevi Aho (b.1949) was only 18 years old when he completed his String Quartet no. 1 in g minor (1967). Nonetheless it was already the second one of its kind: the earlier string quartet in a minor got christened String Quartet No. 0 and banned from performing. The g minor quartet was heard the first time only 50 years after it was born, when the Kamus Quartet premiered it at the Musica Kalevi Aho Festival in Forssa on June 28, 2019. In Aho's home town, Forssa, it was not possible to study composition with a teacher: ?My model in this and the other works I composed while I was at school was all the mostly tonal music I had personally played on the violin or heard on the radio.?The first movement, Moderato, begins in variation form, until followed by a fugue based on the variation theme. The initially lyrical second movement has a quick, virtuosic and light middle section. The third movement is a very quick scherzo that becomes dramatic, and the work ends with a chorale-like finale. The composer tells: ?When I got to study composition at the Sibelius Academy in autumn 1968 and showed the quartet to my teacher, Einojuhani Rautavaara, he said there was no point my studying tonal harmony and tonal formal constructions any longer; that I could do the exams in them straight away and start the courses in modern music resources there and then.?

Mysterium : Quintet for piano left hand and string quartet

Scored for piano left hand and string quartet, Kalevi Aho's Mysterium (2019) consists of four movements performed without a break. The fragmentary sketches of Scriabin’s last, unfinished work Mysterium inspired him to write this piano quintet dedicated to its commissioner, pianist Izumi Tateno. It is founded throughout on six-part Scriabin-like harmonies that also served as a basis for the melodic material.

Suite For Cello and String Orchestra

The Russian-born Victoria Yagling (1946 2011) had a career as cellist which served as an excellent accompaniment to the composition she began at an early age. At the Moscow Conservatory she was a cello student of Mstislav Rostropovich and Dmitry Kabalevsky for composition. In her wide composition catalogue the three cello concertos are her main works. Her expressive, romantically orientated style is Russian in spirit and has grown out of the soil provided by Prokofiev and Shostakovich. Suite for cello and string orchestra (ca. 15 min) was composed in 1967. It consists of four movements.

Concerto For Piano and String Orchestra : Piano Concerto No. 2

Aho’s second piano concerto is scored for a string orchestra comprising just twenty players. The demanding piano writing is honouring the ‘Beethovenian-Lisztian-Brahmsian’ pianistic tradition. At times the piano part is lean and linear, but the work also contains multi-layered, full-toned piano textures and massive rolling octaves. The concerto requires great artistry on the part of the performer. The 30-minute concerto comprises 3 untitled movements played without a break.

Sateen aikaan (Rain Time) : Five songs for mezzo-soprano and string quartet

Kalevi Aho's Sateen aikaan (Rain Time), five songs for mezzo-soprano and string quartet (2017) is set to poems of a Finnish modernist Tuomas Anhava (1927-2001). The mood is melancholic, and the poems also address the idea of leaving in a more general sense. It seems to affect the whole of the world the human race is destroying in its madness, as expressed in the second and third poems. In the last poem, Coda, the perspective broadens out to become conciliatory, universal and cosmic.

Divertimento For String Orchestra

A completely new edition of Einojuhani Rautavaara’s Divertimento is based on the composer's manuscript, incorporating corrections and comments by composer's hand in various sources. Written in 1953, the 9-minute Divertimento is one of Einojuhani Rautavaara's early works in which the rhythms and melodies of Finnish folk music have left a strong print. In this respect the work is a close relative of his popular work The Fiddlers.

String quartet no. 4

String quartet no. 3

String Quartet No. 5

String quartet no. 4

String quartet no. 1 (2015)

String Quartet No. 4 Op. 95

Quintet for oboe and string quartet

Lament For Violoncello and String Orchestra

Anyone who believes traditional tonality to be no longer capable of expressing anything more than timeworn clichés should listen to Kerem's work.” (Robert Maxham / Fanfare) Lament for violoncello and strings was written as a commission from Camerata Nordica and its principal cello, Per Nyström, in 2008. At Per's request the solo part in this piece was composed to represent a lone human voice in a world of disappointment. The composer tells: “I used the violins and violas as an operatic choir: they support and comment on the lament of the lone human being. The bass line is one long drone throughout the piece, representing destiny or unwanted reality. It disappears only whenthe solo voice with the chorus of violins and violas intensifies in their disagreement with life. At the climax of the piece the solo voice is momentarily swallowed by the chorus, only to return with an angry statement of the opening phrase. Thereafter the chorus calms down in acceptance that the world won't change. The bass drone returns to haunt the dying lament of the lone voice. The very last phrase is the only one in a major key and echoes as a prayer for hope.” Duration c. 9 minutes. Score (all three versions), separate solo parts for violoncello / viola / violin and orchestral parts (33221). |||||

Bright Ferment - String Quartet No. 2

La cantina : String quartet no. 3

Chamber Music for young string players I

(Bad) Dreams come true for string quartet

Hope 2021 for string quintet and piano

Suite for cello and string orchestra (1967)

String quartet no. 6 : Reconstruction by Anssi Mattila