Kalevi Aho: Violin Concerto No. 2 & Cello Concerto No. 2 Elina Vähälä, Jonathan Roozeman, Kymi Sinfonietta, Olari Elts

• Kalevi Aho (b. 1949): Violin Concerto No. 2:
• 1 Aho: Violin Concerto No. 2: I. Allegro 12:12
• 2 Aho: Violin Concerto No. 2: II. Adagio 11:00
• 3 Aho: Violin Concerto No. 2: III. Vivace. Leggiero 08:51
• Cello Concerto No. 2:
• 4 Aho: Cello Concerto No. 2: I. Berceuse 07:11
• 5 Aho: Cello Concerto No. 2: II. Presto 05:42
• 6 Aho: Cello Concerto No. 2: III. Adagio 07:38
• 7 Aho: Cello Concerto No. 2: IV. Allegretto 03:47
• 8 Aho: Cello Concerto No. 2: V. Epilogue 06:32
• Total Runtime 01:02:53

Info for Kalevi Aho: Violin Concerto No. 2 & Cello Concerto No. 2

Having broken off work on a second violin concerto in 2012, the prolific Finnish composer Kalevi Aho only returned to the project after being contacted by the violinist Elina Vähälä. While aware of the weight of tradition and eager to avoid the pitfalls of violinistic clichés, Aho nevertheless wrote a virtuoso work dominated by the soloist, who is offered many possibilities to realise her own interpretative conception. The orchestral part was specifically composed for the Kymi Sinfonietta with its sound in mind.

Kalevi Aho, one of Finland’s foremost contemporary composers, was born in Forssa in southern Finland on 9th March 1949. He commenced violin studies in his home town at the age of ten, and his first compositions also date from this time. From the autumn of 1968 he studied the violin and composition at the Sibelius Academy in Helsinki; his composition teacher was Einojuhani Rautavaara.

Elina Vähälä, violin (tracks 1-3)
Jonathan Roozeman, cello (tracks 4-8)
Kymi Sinfonietta
Olari Elts, conductor

Elina Vähälä
Born in the USA and raised in Finland, Elina Vähälä made her orchestral début with the Lahti Symphony Orchestra at the age of twelve and was later chosen by Osmo Vänskä as the orchestra’s ‘Young Master Soloist’. Since then, her career has continued to soar on the international stage, winning praise from audiences and musicians alike.

Elina Vähälä appears regularly with all of the key Finnish orchestras and is a guest of countless high-profile orchestras across the globe. Her schedule has taken her on tours throughout China, Korea, Japan, Northern Europe, and the Americas. A versatile soloist with a wide stylistic repertoire, Vähälä has also given world pre- mières of Aulis Sallinen’s Chamber Concerto and Curtis Curtis-Smith’s Double Concerto.

Vähälä continues to work with many leading conductors such as Leonard Slatkin, Carlos Kalmar, Jukka-Pekka Saraste, Okko Kamu, Jakub Hrůša, Thierry Fischer, Sakari Oramo, Leif Segerstam, Josep Caballé-Domenech, Alexander Liebreich, and Michał Nesterowicz.

Jonathan Roozeman
Finnish-Dutch cellist Jonathan Roozeman collaborates with conductors including Christoph Eschenbach, Esa-Pekka Salonen, Osmo Vänskä, Dima Slobodeniouk, Jukka-Pekka Saraste and Santtu-Matias Rouvali. He has appeared at venues such as New York’s Lincoln Center and Carnegie Hall, Konzerthaus Berlin, Suntory Hall Tokyo and Amsterdam Concertgebouw, and with orchestras such as the Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra, Tampere Philharmonic Orchestra, BBC Symphony Orchestra, Seoul Philharmonic Orchestra and Gulbenkian Orchestra. He also regularly appears at the Ark Classics Festival in Japan.

The youngest prizewinner at the International Tchaikovsky Competition in 2015, Roozeman was previously a student of Martti Rousi at the Sibelius Academy, Helsinki, and graduated in July 2020 from the Kronberg Academy under Frans Helmerson. He plays a David Tecchler cello (c. 1707) on loan from the Finnish Cultural Foundation and his bow was made by Jean Pierre Marie Persoit in Paris (c. 1850).

Olari Elts
Born in Tallinn, Olari Elts began his tenure as music director and chief conductor of the Estonian National Symphony Orchestra in the 2020/21 season, having been its principal guest conductor from 2007 to 2020. Since 2018 he has also been the artistic advisor of the Kymi Sinfonietta in Finland. He has previously served as principal guest conductor of the Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra and the Scottish Chamber Orchestra, artistic advisor of the Orchestre de Bretagne and chief conductor of the Latvian National Symphony Orchestra. As a guest conductor, he has directed leading orchestras all over the world, including the Orchestre National de France, Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra and Seoul Philharmonic Orchestra. An expert interpreter of contemporary music, Elts founded the NYYD Ensemble, specialising in that genre. Soloists with whom he collaborates include Gautier and Renaud Capuçon, Daniel Lozakovich, Isabelle Faust, Martin Helmchen, Stephen Hough, Karita Mattila, Baiba Skride and Antoine Tamestit. Olari Elts is known as a champion of contemporary Baltic composers. He has recorded extensively, including violin concertos by Borgström and Shostakovich with Eldbjørg Hemsing and the Wiener Symphoniker on BIS.

Booklet for Kalevi Aho: Violin Concerto No. 2 & Cello Concerto No. 2