Cologne Music Triennale - Prokofiev Piano Concerto No. 3 / Rautavaara Isle of Bliss / Oramo, Mustonen, City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra
Soloist Olli Mustonen's absolutely scintillating performance of Sergei  Prokofiev's extraordinary Third Piano Concerto is the centerpiece of this 2000  concert of 20th century music by the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra under  its music director, Sakari Oramo. Opening the program with a vivid account of  Finnish master Einojuhani Rautavaara's tone poem "Isle of Bliss," Oramo and his  forces then give superb support to Mustonen in the Prokofiev Third. The concert  winds up with a double dose of an earlier Finnish master, Jean Sibelius: his  intensely dramatic Symphony No. 5 in E-flat Major is followed by the encore,  "Valse Triste."--Kevin Filipski