Magnus Lindberg: new Viola Concerto travels internationally
Following its recent premiere in Helsinki, Magnus Lindberg’s new Viola Concerto for Lawrence Power is journeying widely this season – visiting London, Hamburg, Salzburg and St. Louis – and has been released on a new recording by Ondine.
The latest of Magnus Lindberg’s series of string concertos is his first for viola, written for British virtuoso Lawrence Power. Premiered in February this year with the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra under Nicholas Collon, the work travels on this season with Lawrence Power joining the Philharmonia in London, the NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchestra in Hamburg, the Mozarteum Orchestra in Salzburg and the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra. The new concerto is also the highlight on a new recording released last month by Ondine, featuring the Finnish forces from the work’s premiere (ODE 1436-2).
First up this season is the Viola Concerto’s UK premiere on 10 November at the Royal Festival Hall in London, with Esa-Pekka Salonen at the helm of the Philharmonia. The all-Finnish programme closes the orchestra’s Nordic Soundscapes series, also featuring music by Lotta Wennäkoski and Sibelius. Salonen and Lindberg have been close friends and creative partners since their student days in Helsinki, and the conductor has previously led world premieres of many major Lindberg works including Fresco (1998), Sculpture (2005) and Cello Concerto No.2 (2013) with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, Chorale (2002) and Parada (2002) with the Philharmonia, and Piano Concerto No.3 (2022) with the San Francisco Symphony.
The concerto’s German premiere follows on 16 February within the closing concert of the Elbphilharmonie Visions festival in Hamburg, with the NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchestra conducted by Alan Gilbert. March brings the Austrian premiere with the Mozarteum Orchestra in Salzburg under Aivis Greters on 9 March. The North American premiere performances see the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra conducted by Hannu Lintu on 14 and 16 March. All concerts feature Lawrence Power as viola soloist.
> Philharmonia > Elbphilharmonie > Mozarteum > St. Louis Symphony
Magnus Lindberg describes the new concerto: “I wanted to write a big concerto for the instrument, but decided to use a classical orchestra with double wind instruments and strings only. In this work, even the timpani doesn’t become part of the sound palette. Nor is there any other percussion, harps or keyboard instruments. In this way the concerto follows the line of my Violin Concerto No.1 which I scored for a ‘Mozart’-sized orchestra. The piece is divided into three movements which are played without pauses in between, thus sharing all the material.”
The new Ondine recording of the Viola Concerto is performed by Lawrence Power and the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra conducted by Nicholas Collon. The release also includes two orchestral works composed during the pandemic year of 2020. Serenades was written for the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and is a large-scale nocturnal work, full of the fleeting, mysterious moods of the night. Absence was commissioned by the Rotterdam Philharmonic for the 250th anniversary of Beethoven’s birth and was inspired by the composer’s ‘conversation notebooks’, used to communicate with others following his loss of hearing.
> Buy the new recording from Amazon
> Listen on Spotify
Recent Lindberg publications include study scores of Serenades and Piano Concerto No. 3 in the Hawkes Pocket Scores series, alongside performing materials of chamber works Santa Fe Project and Quintet.
> Further information on Work: Viola Concerto
Photo: Philip Gatward
