Kalevi Aho loves a challenge, though at times (as in his recent disc of concertos for contrabassoon and tuba) the effort can seem more an end in itself than a musically rewarding experience. Not so here. His Twelfth Symphony is a bold extravaganza for full orchestra, distant chamber orchestra, and extra brass and percussion “in the round”. It was composed for performance in an outdoor amphitheater in Luosto, Lapland, and requires about 120 players and two singers whose wordless vocalise recalls similar moments in Nielsen’s Third Symphony. This, then, is nature music–at least for the most part–supremely evocative and atmospheric (and full of arresting, attractive melodic invention).
The piece begins with some primal drumming and ends with a whopper of a storm as vivid as the finale of Aho’s equally magnificent Symphonic Dances. In between there’s a “darkness to light” second movement that reveals Aho’s newly found love of the contrabassoon far more appropriately than his “symphony” for said instrument, followed by a lyrical “Song in the Fells” featuring the tenor and soprano soloists, plus saxophone.
Obviously a piece such as this was made for SACD recording, and BIS’s engineers have captured the “surround” experience with exceptional vividness. That said, I still prefer to listen in regular stereo, and would sooner die than hear the thing outdoors, as originally intended. Happily, the work’s musical substance is more than strong enough that its impact emerges just as powerfully through two speakers. So if you haven’t invested in a surround system you have nothing to worry about. It goes without saying that the performance is outstanding, with John Storgards coaxing his battalion of players to produce a wonderfully full, integrated sonic experience. In other words, the spacial element sounds natural, not gimmicky, and the performance has as much to do with that as does the engineering. A wonderful disc for the adventurous. [5/23/2008]
