This new recording by Gävle Symphony Orchestra with conductor Jaime Martín is a tribute to the work of Johannes Brahms (18331897). The art of Brahms has inspired countless of artists and composers since the 19th century up to our times. Arnold Schoenberg was one of the composers who greatly admired Brahms work. Schoenberg was particularly fond of Brahms 1st Piano Quartet (Op. 25) and when Otto Klemperer suggested him to orchestrate it in 1937, Schoenberg took the task without hesitation. Schoenberg regarded his reworking of the Piano Quartet often dubbed as Brahms Fifth as an act of homage to Brahms, and he believed he had finally succeeded in addressing the composers concerns about the original score. No wonder that Schoenbergs masterful arrangement has remained in the concert programs of symphony orchestras. English composer Sir Hubert Parry (1848-1918) wrote his orchestral work, Elegy for Johannes Brahms, in 1897 in memory of his recently deceased musical idol. This short symphonic movement, which makes some overt references to Brahmss music, was never performed in the composers lifetime, and only received its premiere after Parrys own death in 1918. After that, it languished unplayed until it was again resurrected in 1977. After decades of neglect, this recording is a manifestation of the recent growing interest in Parrys music. Gävle Symphony Orchestra, founded in Sweden in 1912, has a long and exciting history. Since 2013, the orchestra has enjoyed a fruitful musical partnership with principal conductor Jaime Martín, but the orchestra has also collaborated regularly with renowned international conductors. This is the orchestras fourth album to be released by Ondine. Jaime Martín became the Artistic Director and Principal Conductor of Gävle Symphony Orchestra in 2013. During recent years orchestral engagements have led the rising conductor to collaborate with several prominent orchestras around the world. Martín is also Chief Conductor of the Orquestra de Cadaqués and known for his active career as solo flautist.

Soprano Karita Mattila and female composer Kaija Saariaho share not only popular star status in the classical musical world but also a fruitful musical collaboration and friendship. Their latest is Mirage, the setting of a tranceinduced incantation text by the Mexican healer María Sabína (1894-1985). This recording features the work's world premiere performance in Paris on March 13, 2008. The ecstatic 15-minute piece is written for the unique combination of soprano, cello and orchestra, featuring cellist Anssi Karttunen and the Orchestre de Paris under its music director Christoph Eschenbach. "Few singers other than Mattila will be able to hurl the voice into such high ecstasy, bend its tones and express the entire transformation in such racked yet exultant body language. (...) this is a small but important work in Saariaho's increasingly fruitful development."--The Times Anssi Karttunen performs also in Notes on Light, a cello concerto which Saariaho wrote for him in 2006. The CD also includes Orion, the largest orchestral work Saariaho has written to date.

Many concepts have been applied to the playing of Bach's "Goldberg Variations, BWV 988," on the piano rather than the harpsichord for which it was originally composed. There are readings that attempt to restrict the piano's dynamic ambit to keep it close to that of a harpsichord, those that go full-on Romantic, and monumental takes that recognize the sheer unprecedented scope of the work. Fewer, though, are those that recognize the original story of the work's origin, recounted by Bach's early biographer Forkel: a Russian ambassador in Saxony, named Kaiserling, had trouble sleeping and prevailed upon a young pianist named Goldberg to serenade him to the land of dreams with a harpsichord, asking Bach to compose something for these sessions. The tale has been widely disbelieved, but there is no reason to suppose that quiet, intimate "Goldberg Variations" are any less valid than an epic one. That's what's here from German pianist Lars Vogt, who manages the neat trick of delivering a truly pianistic interpretation without turning it into a Romantic one. He does so by keeping the volume low throughout and by reining in the temptation to make the big minor-key variations at the middle and end into anguished dissonant cries. Instead they are moderate in tempo and quietly dreamy, to delightful effect, and one might indeed imagine the insomniac Russian count drifting off to them. In general Vogt's treatment is straightforward, with nothing brought so far to the fore that it would interfere with the considerable contrapuntal detail that emerges naturally from the individual variations. With excellent engineering from Ondine, working in the Deutschlandfunk Chamber Music Studio in Cologne, this is a highly recommended tonic to grandiose "Goldberg Variations" played on whatever instruments.

World Premiere Recording
Tapiola Chamber Choir, Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra, Finnish Philharmonic Choir
Okko Kamu
Lilli Paasikivi (mezzo-soprano), Riikka Rantanen (soprano), Arttu Kataja (baritone), Jyrki Korhonen (bass), Janne Sundqvist (bass), Tuomas Katajala (tenor), Herman Wallen (baritone), Tommi Hakala (baritone), Mari Palo (soprano), Laura Nykanen (contralto), Jyrki Anttila (tenor), Kirsi Thum (soprano), Jussi Myllys (tenor), Tuomas Tuloisela (bass), Niklas Spangberg (bass), Santeri Kinnunen (voice)
Recorded: April 2005
Recording Venue: Finlandia Hall, Helsinki

Helsingborg Symphony Orchestra
Okko Kamu
Ralf Gothoni (piano)
Recorded: June 1994
Recording Venue: Helsingborg Concert Hall, Helsingborg, Sweden