Exquisitely Absurd
Guitar Concertos by Antti Auvinen; Lotta Wennäkoski; Riikka Talvitie
Petri Kumela (guitar); Tapiola Sinfonietta/Dima Slobodeniuk
Alba ABCD475 62:50 mins
‘Exquisitely Absurd’ neatly summarises the three, vivacious concertos featured on this album of world-premiere recordings from guitarist Petri Kumela and Tapiola Sinfonietta, conducted by Dima Slobodeniouk. Stylistically, each work sits on a liquid continuum from one pole to its apparently contradictory opposite. Balancing the surreal with the lyrical – often simultaneously – they offer a refreshing take on the pairing of classical guitar with orchestra while looking affectionately askance at Nordic modernism from deep within its embrace.
Kumela excels alongside the composers. All Finns born in the 1970s, they share a spirit of adventure and naturalness of expression that underpins an ultimately serious intent. Antti Auvinen’s Andalusian Panzerwagon Jazz (2021) proves less flippant than its title suggests – notwithstanding the cartoonishjuxtapositions that proliferate across its four movements. Swaggering and bopping, from skitter to droop and insistent riff, there’s a yearning here too, which comes most to the fore as the work spools to its enigmatic conclusion.
Lotta Wennäkoski’s Sussurus (2016) initially sounds born of the same impulse to contradict – and its taut single movement explores a similarly brilliant palette of colours and textures. Yet a less earthbound, more intimate sense of exploration emerges from her rustlings, squeaks, snaps and insistent pulses.
Whether the two movements of Riikka Talvitie’s Without Irony (2009/22) are just so is open to question – but perhaps that’s her point. At once delicate and fiercely dramatic, the work is full of invention and kinetic energy. It successfully pivots on the seriousness of play – and the fruitfulness of serious, sympathetic collaboration. Steph Power