Gal - Chamber Works for Cello - COMPACT DISCS [CD]

As Principal Bassoon in the Lahti Symphony Orchestra, Harri Ahmas (b. 1957) is one of Finland's most highly regarded orchestral musicians. But he is also the composer of a substantial body of music, including four symphonies, eight concertos, much chamber music and a generous number of works for wind band. Some grandiose and powerful music for organ is threaded through his composing career, too, much of it composed for the musician who plays it here, Jan Lehtola. Coincidentally, Dr Lehtola, Finland's leading concert organist, is a native of Lahti, the industrial town inland from Helsinki brought to international prominence by the Sibelius recordings it made under it's former chief conductor Osmo Vänskä - who is a Patron of Toccata Classics.

The Austrian composer Hans Gal expressed himself in practically all important areas of so-called InchclassicalInch music, and not least had great success with several of his stage works before he had to emigrate from Germany to England due to the political situation. He was obviously a very gifted creator of musical idylls, as this new recording from Finland shows. The Divertimento for Chamber Orchestra from the 1920s and the Serenade for Strings have a gracious charm that is only surpassed by the seductive, harmonically enchanting Concertino for Violin and Orchestra. The piece reveals nothing of the composer's personal circumstances or the growing threat looming over Europe - all that was good, true and beautiful was an inextinguishable source of life to Hans Gal.

Gal / Ensemble Burletta - Hans Gal Chamber Music for Clarinet [COMPACT DISCS] date 10/14/2016