Sebastian FAGERLUND (b. 1972)
Oceano (2011) [12:13]
Fuel (2010) [8:01]
Transient Light (2013) [10:57]
Sonata for clarinet and piano (2010) [16:27]
Scherzic for viola and cello (2008) [4:02]
String Quartet No 1, ‘Verso l’interno’ (2007) [17:11]
Paavali Jumppanen (piano)
Minna Pensola (violin), Atte Kilpeläinen (viola), Tomas Djupsjöbacka (cello)
Christoffer Sundqvist (clarinet), Hervé Joulain (horn),
Meta4
rec. 2017/19, Kalevi Aho Hall, Lahti and Järvenpää Hall, Finland
BIS BIS-2324 SACD [70:33]
Reviewing in 2018 a disc of orchestral music by Finnish composer Sebastian Fagerlund (BIS2295) I wrote: ‘This is compelling music that one wants to return to.’ I have been able since then to get to know more of the composer’s music, to which I can now add these chamber works composed between 2007 and 2013. My opinion has not altered.
The earliest work in the programme is the String Quartet No 1, cast in six short movements. The insert notes inform us that the most important is the fourth, in that the musical material of the whole work is derived from what we hear there. The opening ‘Pròlogo’ marked Tranquillo, makes much use of tremolando techniques before passing to the first of three movements entitled ‘Danza’ – though this music hardly evokes dance in this listener’s mind. The first is marked Feroce and the second Agitato, though there is ferocity in that movement too. Long held notes and some consoling harmonies are the main characteristics of the slow movement (Mesto – mournful) whose calm is totally shattered by the third dance, marked Agitato capriccioso. Much of this quartet, especially the three faster movements, will put listeners in mind of Bartók’s quartets, but this is no slavish imitation, rather it is writing of great originality. I am thinking in particular of the fourth movement – the booklet describes it ‘reminiscent of heavy rock’ – whose climax features striking sonorities and whose link into the quiet, though troubled finale is a passage of remarkable musical imagination. All in all, when the work is over one is left with the impression of music that really has something to say. It is performed here with stunningly unanimous virtuosity by Meta4.
I think most listeners will have a similar reaction when they hear Scherzic. The work’s four minutes fall into two halves, the first motoric and reminiscent of American minimalism, the second featuring cantabile writing against much pizzicato. The booklet uses the adjective ‘anguished’, and also describes the work’s thematic structure as ‘developing new branches from small initial shoots’.
The Clarinet Sonata that Fagerlund composed for Christoffer Sundqvist begins with the kind of breathless moto perpetuo encountered in the two earlier works. The first movement has a slightly becalmed middle section, though the note values are still short and rapid. The slow second movement is in complete contrast, with long, held notes from both instruments and some special effects – altered tone, slides and so on – from the soloist. We read that the thematic material is derived from that of the first movement, though several hearings are necessary to be able to perceive points such as these. The finale is a whirlwind that ends quietly, and the performance is unforgettable from both players, an object lesson in virtuosity and control.
The curiously entitled Fuel is made up of ‘six miniatures for clarinet, cello and piano’. Miniatures indeed: the longest lasts barely more than two minutes. The work feels much bigger than this, however. The first three movements, all breathless with emphasis on pulse and repeated notes, are similar in character yet quite distinct in the musical material used. Particularly striking is the skill with which Fagerlund fashions the transitions from one short movement to another. (They are played without a break.) The slow, fourth piece is described as ‘almost romantic, warm-sounding’; tonal harmonies predominate, at least in the first half. Something similar occurs seconds before the end of the work, justifying the composer’s indication of Esaltato (exalted), but the final gesture is an abrupt dismissal.
Of the two-movement string trio, Oceano, the composer is quoted as saying that ‘various elements emerge, travel, appear and reappear’, that ‘surface events coexist with slow currents in the depths’, and that the two movements are ‘based on the same underlying material’. Now all this may be true, but one wonders quite what it means. Fagerlund’s music seems to be constructed from the tiniest of motifs that are difficult to discern and to separate, especially when in the process of development. The work opens with a fine evocation of the swell of the sea, the cello’s role particularly vivid here. This opening gradually evolves into music that is fast, frenetic and uneasy, where the listener can perceive those elements of Middle Eastern music to which the booklet notes refer. The opening of the second movement is once again rather Bartókian, the musical language no more advanced than that of the earlier composer. A kind of calm gradually ensues, closing the work in what might imagine to be another seascape, now still and mysterious. As to the composer’s comments about this work, the music itself is so eloquent that no insight into the ideas behind it nor how those ideas have been put into practice is needed.
Rapid repeated notes from the piano and the pulsing music that immediately follows make for an arresting opening to Transient Light. This suddenly stops, however, with the entrance of the horn, whose role in the work is frequently to intone more extended melodic lines than we have encountered in the rest of the programme, frequently in slow counterpoint with the strings. There is a certain serenity to these passages which none the less remains equivocal and rather unsettled. The pulsing music returns, leading to a powerful, driving climax. The closing three minutes are made up of hypnotic, slow, rising notes from all the instruments except the horn, who treads a different path. Hervé Joulain is superb in a work composed for him, and a special word of appreciation must also go to Paavali Jumppanen, whose piano playing in three of these works leaves the listener gasping.
William Hedley
Performers
Minna Pensola (violin), Atte Kilpeläinen (viola), Tomas Djupsjöbacka (cello) (Oceano)
Christoffer Sundqvist (clarinet), Tomas Djupsjöbacka (cello), Paavali Jumppanen (piano) (Fuel)
Hervé Joulain (horn), Minna Pensola (violin), Tomas Djupsjöbacka (cello), Paavali Jumppanen (piano) (Transient Light)
Christoffer Sundqvist (clarinet), Paavali Jumppanen (piano) (Sonata)
Atte Kilpeläinen (viola), Paavali Jumppanen (piano) (Scherzic)
Meta4 (Antti Tikkanen, Minna Pensola, Atte Kilpeläinen, Tomas Djupsjöbacka) (String Quartet)
