Lindbergs kraftvolle Musik ist ein Ohrenschmaus und dürfte jeden Skeptiker von zeitgenössischer Musik überzeugen. Die in dieser Box versammelten Werke wie u.a. ‘Kraft’, ‘Kinetics’, ‘Marea’, ‘Corrente I & II’, ‘Feria’ oder ‘Concerto for Orchestra’ wurden schon als Einzelaufnahmen hier eingehend besprochen. Und wir können uns nur wiederholen: Magnus Lindbergs Orchestermusik gehört in jede Sammlung, zumal mit Salonen, Saraste und Oramo nicht nur Freunde des Komponisten, sondern auch wirkliche Kenner seiner Musik am Pult der jeweiligen Orchester und Ensembles stehen. Bis auf wenige Ausnahmen können die Interpretationen durchgehend für sich einnehmen. Aber selbst dort, wo ein Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks unter Saraste in ‘Kinetics’ nicht die Selbstverständlichkeit der finnischen Ensembles erreicht, bleibt der Gesamteindruck sehr gut. Schade, dass Aufmachung und Booklet dieser Box so lieb-und lustlos sind.

Make no mistake, Finnish composer Magnus Lindberg is a cutting-edge modernist nor has his blade been stropped smooth. It’s severing is achieved through ragged saw-teeth and violent conflict.

He attended classes given by Paavo Heininen at Helsinki’s Sibelius Academy. Later he studied in Darmstadt with Ferneyhough and Lachenmann and with Donatoni at Siena and Grisey in Paris.

The works featured here have been riffled and reshuffled to present them broken from original couplings and sequenced early to late: 1982 to 2005.

Reissues of orchestral works by Magnus Lindberg, who is given a deluxe retrospective at the relatively young age of 53. This collection contains works dating from 1982 to 2005, tracing a path from his early extremist modernism (his teachers included Helmut Lachenmann, Brian Ferneyhough, Vinko Globokar, and, perhaps most critically as his career progressed, spectralist Gerard Grisey) to his more recent, and notably more palatable, efforts. Maestro Salonen asserts on the jewelbox that Lindberg has created “a distinct, personal, approachable language…in the spirit of Strauss, Ravel, and Stravinsky”. I will return to this comment below following a necessarily brief survey of this set’s contents.

The 15 pieces in this collection of music by Finnish composer Magnus Lindberg, who was born in 1958, range in length from Chorale’s six minutes to Kraft’s 30; and from Tendenza’s year of composition, 1982, to Sculpture’s, 2005. The pieces are actually presented across these four CDs in chronological order. They represent an aggregation of recordings by soloist, four orchestras and ensembles under three conductors; they were previously released by Ondine in 1992, 1997, 1998, 2004 and 2005. One purpose of this issue is to illustrate the way in which Lindberg’s composing career has evolved: “…every work contains something completely new but also something from the previous work…rldquo; [from an interview Lindberg gave in 1995].

So there must be two criteria by which we should judge the success of such a collection: How well does it reflect Lindberg’s development? How good are the performances? Currently composer-in-residence at the New York Philharmonic, Lindberg studied at the Sibelius Academy in Helsinki under Rautavaara and Paavo Heininen; he also attended summer courses with Franco Donatoni, Lachenmann and Ferneyhough then studied privately with Vinko Globokar and Gérard Grisey. A pianist, Lindberg founded Toimii (“It Worksrldquo; in Finnish) in 1980 and plays with the ensemble. At around the same time, he started the informal Ears Open Society.

Kraft was one of Lindberg’s first compositions, dating from the early 1980s; and is his largest to date with multiple harmonies and an orchestra extending to scrap metal percussion and the spoken word. There seemed a real danger that Lindberg had thrown so much into Kraft that he had “written himself outrldquo;. Here it’s performed with vigor, sensitivity and a real awareness of its monumental status. The variety of instrumental color and layers of texture are given no more nor less prominence than the shifting forward movement by groups of instruments apparently in search of themes. Yet the players never take such searching literally; they remain in control. One is struck by the contrast which Kraft’s force (as you would expect from such a name) employs at all times when compared with the more reticent, yet equally assured style of Tendenza. But the integrity of the Avanti Chamber Orchestra and Oramo in the latter is as great as of Toimii Ensemble and Salonen as they work undistracted though Kraft.

But the trilogy, Kinetics, Marea, Joy, saw him build on the technique of repeated chords and refining a chaconne-like style in Corrente and Corrente II by the end of the decade. The sweeps and sustained chords of both Kinetics and Marea are amply handled by Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra with Saraste and the Avanti Chamber Orchestra with Oramo again. Although the scoring is lighter, neither group of players falls for the temptation of conveying anything less than the full impamore....