On the heels of their highly acclaimed release of orchestral music by Finnish composer Jukka Tiensuu…Ondine now gives us one with some by his fellow countryman Uljas Pulkkis (b. 1975). And once again all selections are world premiere recordings that will stretch the appreciation envelope of late romanticists, delight modernists, and wow audiophiles!
Pulkkis, like Tiensuu and their compatriot Esa-Pekka Salonen…is a magnificent colorist who writes music brimming over with kinetic energy. And a good example of that is his eighteen-minute, orchestrally opulent tone poem On the Crest of Waves (2003). Highly programmatic, it’s about the sea and takes its cue from earlier romantic and impressionistic composers.
It’s made up of seven seamlessly connected “fantasias,” as the composer calls them, each having a descriptive title. In the introductory one [track-1], glistening strings suggest a calm glassy sea, and introduce an angular sighing riff (AS) [track-1, beginning at 00:07] that will act as a unifying motif throughout the piece.
Woodwinds, brass and harp join in the following fantasia entitled “On the Shore” [track-2], which the composer says was inspired by his seeing waves striking the coast of Iceland. There’s something of Debussy’s (1862–1918) La Mer…Sibelius’ (1865–1957) fifth symphony (1915, revised 1919), and Ravel’s (1875–1937) Daphnis and Chloé (1912) in this mesmerizing section.
However, it’s the calm before the storm, which Pulkkis conjures up in the next three fantasias named “The Wind,” “Rough Sea” and “Approaching Storm” [tracks-3, 4 and 5]. Stabbing allusions to AS and heavy duty percussion make this the most exciting part of the poem with passages calling to mind Richard Strauss’ (1864–1949) Ein Heldenleben (1897–98).
After an arresting thunder and lightning-streaked passage, [track-5, beginning at 03:19] Neptune’s wrath…abates in “The Clam” [tracks-6], which gives way to the concluding fantasia, “On the Waves.” It ends this extraordinary seascape in a benign state with a sinusoidal contemplation of ocean motion.
As we’ve noted before the Finns seem to have a real knack for turning out superb contemporary clarinet concertos. To wit, Magnus Lindberg’s (b. 1958) highly acclaimed one of 2002, and Jukka Tiensuu’s from 2007…
Well, here’s a third which Pulkkis calls Tales of Joy, Passion, and Love. It’s in three adjoining movements corresponding sequentially to each of the sentiments in the title. The last one was composed first in 2005, with the other two following in 2010.
Inspired by the composer’s love for opera, he likens the clarinet’s role to that of a leading tenor. Carrying this a couple of steps further, there are stage directions for several members of the orchestra (see the album