Lindberg: Aura in Memoriam Witold Lutoslawski; Engine
You can just about be guaranteed that anything conductor Oliver Knussen raises his baton over is going to be some of the best postmodernism at large in the music world today. This holds true for this disc of two broadly structured works by Finnish composer Magnus Lindberg.Aura(1993-94) is (a) a tone poem, or (b) a symphony, or (c) a concerto for orchestra. You pick. Whatever it is, it's a spectacular (and spectacularly cogent) display of sound-masses and harmonic clusters that incorporate every instrument in the orchestra, all of which is held together by steady tempos and a (paradoxically) even temperament.Engines(1996) is a more rigorous statement in clashing harmonics and adroit use of counterpoint. It's also for a chamber-sized orchestra, but you'd never know it. That said, this really is music only for the brave. If you're one of those, this, then, is for you.--Paul Cook