"Combining conductor Okko Kamu and composer Aulis Sallinen is a guarantee of top-notch music-making....This is a fine introduction to Sallinen." Fanfare review of the orchestra's Naxos recording of Sallinen's complete works for string orchestra.
Acclaimed as "The Flagship of the Finnish Orchestral Fleet", the Finnish Chamber Orchestra performs a wide-ranging repertoire that includes music by Haydn, Mozart and Beethoven as well as Sibelius, Aulis Sallinen and other contemporary Finnish composers.
Comprised of soloists and leading players from the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra as well as from the Helsinki Philharmonic and the Finnish National Opera Orchestra, the Finnish Chamber Orchestra was created in 1990 in order to provide additional opportunities for especially talented musicians to work together as an ensemble and to further explore the chamber repertoire.
Artistic planning is managed by the orchestra itself in cooperation with invited guest conductors and the artistic advisor, Jukka-Pekka Saraste. Since its inception, the Chamber Orchestra has been conducted by Mr. Saraste, who regularly leads about half of their performances each year; Paavo Berglund, Okko Kamu, Sakari Oramo, Joseph Swensen, Juha Kangas and Ralf GothÛni conduct the rest.
In recent seasons, the orchestra's annual schedule of engagements has included regular concerts in Helsinki and throughout Finland. Elsewhere in Europe, the Finnish Chamber Orchestra has performed in Copenhagen and in Amsterdam's Concertgebouw, as well as appearing at both the Schleswig-Holstein Festival in Germany and the Naantali Festival in Finland. In 1996 the Finnish Chamber Orchestra made a successful debut tour of the USA with concerts in Atlanta, Chicago, St. Louis, New York and Washington DC.
For Naxos, the Finnish Chamber Orchestra has so far recorded Sallinen's complete works for string orchestra.
