Christoffer Sundqvist, Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra, Dima Slobodeniouk - Sebastian Fagerlund: Clarinet Concerto, Partita, Isola (2011)

This is a solid presentation of very good contemporary music written in a conservative manner. Sebastian Fagerlund is a young Finnish composer (b.1972) with a natural ease in the manipulation of large orchestral forces. The three works presented here are each concerto-like in form, although only the Clarinet Concerto is labeled as such. The Partita sets a percussion battery against the orchestra, while the two-movement Isola features a prominent solo line for cello. Fagerlund writes in a postmodern tonal style, with an essential Romanticism at his core. There is also a touch of jazz in the Clarinet Concerto, reminiscent of the Copland concerto for the same instrument. He loves to make the orchestra roar, but is also capable of poetic effects as well, notably in the lovely slow movement of the Clarinet Concerto. I’m not struck by anything significantly original in this work, but it is good solid craft, presented in the fine sound and excellent performances we have come to expect from this label.