Pekka Kuusisto / Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra / Hannu Lintu SEBASTIAN FAGERLUND Darkness in Light

This is BIS’s third disc devoted to the music of the Finn Sebastian Fagerlund (b1972). David Fanning was not wholly convinced by the earlier orchestral release (including Isola and the Clarinet Concerto, 9/11) but I warmed rather more to the present pairing, in style not so dissimilar from his elder Swedish contemporary, B Tommy Andersson.

The Violin Concerto Darkness in Light (2012) was composed for and dedicated to Pekka Kuusisto, who gives a dazzlingly virtuoso account of it here. The three movements, as might be inferred from the title (derived from the writing of Haruki Murakami), explore and try to reconcile mutually exclusive elements, heard at the outset in the opposition of the dark writing for bass clarinets, timpani and tuba with the solo violin and supporting group of upper winds and bright percussion. Kuusisto navigates his way brilliantly through the gamut of effects including multiple-stopping, microtones, harmonics et al, all expressed within a broadly legato flow; even the more angular and hostile episodes serve to illuminate the music’s broader context.

Ignite (2010) is similarly a work of dark and light, its structure dominated by spirals, the music calming to near stasis as it approaches the centre before being flung out again into the turbulent finale. It is an invigorating and virtuosically scored symphonic poem and finds Lintu and the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra fully on their mettle. Superb sound, as always from the black label. (Guy Rickards / Gramophone)