Lindberg: Accused & Two Episodes Anu Komsi, The Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra & Hannu Lintu

• Magnus Lindberg (b. 1958): Accused:
• 1 Accused: Pt. 1, — 05:33
• 2 Accused: Pt. 2, — 15:35
• 3 Accused: Pt. 3, — 17:11
• Two Episodes:
• 4 Two Episodes: No. 1, — 09:16
• 5 Two Episodes: No. 2, — 08:40
• Total Runtime 56:15

Info for Lindberg: Accused & Two Episodes

This new album by the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra and conductor Hannu Lintu includes two of Magnus Lindberg’s (b. 1958) recent compositions featuring soprano Anu Komsi as soloist in Accused. Magnus Lindberg is among the leading figures in today’s contemporary music and the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra enjoys a particularly close relationship with the composer.

Vocal music, with the exception of the award-winning work Graffiti (2009) for choir and orchestra, is a rare medium among Lindberg’s output. Accused(2014) is Lindberg’s first work written for a solo voice and orchestra. The work was jointly commissioned by the London Philharmonic, Radio France, the Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra, the Toronto Symphony Orchestra, the Cleveland Orchestra and Carnegie Hall. The work was premiered in London in January 2015. Lindberg chose extracts from actual interrogations in three historically and politically different situations: from the French Revolution, an extract from East Germany’ Stasi archives, and part of the Bradley (now Chelsea) Manning interrogation. Accused reflects universal human values that transcend transitory politics.

Two Episodes (2016) is an orchestral work that was written for the London Proms in 2016 to accompany Beethoven’s 9th Symphony. With this in mind the work is scored for a similar orchestra that is required to play Beethoven’s 9th. Lindberg also concluded his work on the same A–E fifth that opens Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony, meaning that the transition can be without a pause. Nevertheless, Two Episodes is an independent work and can naturally be performed without the Beethoven. Beethoven’s musical thinking left an imprint on the work, though in the form of distanced references and spiritual kinship rather than stylistic influences. Although textural similarities to Beethoven can be identified in the music, they blend seamlessly into the colourful tapestry that principally seems to hark from the orchestral brilliance of Ravel and Debussy.

Anu Komsi, soprano
Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra
Hannu Lintu, conductor

Anu Komsi
Praised for her multifaceted musicianship and dynamic coloratura voice, Anu Komsi
appears regularly across Europe and in the USA. She is a versatile recitalist and chamber musician with a repertoire ranging from Renaissance to con- temporary music, and her 2011 performance in John Zorn’s La Machine de l’être at New York City Opera was described as ‘pyrotechnic grace’ in the New York Magazine. Engagements at leading opera houses such as the Finnish Na- tional Opera, Opéra Bastille, Théâtre du Châtelet, Oper Frankfurt and Staatsoper Stuttgart include some 50 roles, among them Lulu, Zerbinetta, Nannetta, Olympia, Micaela and Gilda. Anu Komsi also appears in contemporary works such as Lady Sarashina by Peter Eötvös, Philomela by James Dillon and George Benjamin’s Into the Little Hill, with a role especially written for her.

Anu Komsi has performed with orchestras such as the Berlin, Los Angeles and New York Philharmonics, the Wiener Symphoniker, Ensemble Modern and London Sinfonietta. Conductors with whom she has collaborated include Sir Roger Norrington, Esa-Pekka Salonen, Heinz Holliger, Sakari Oramo, Franz Welser-Möst and Alan Gilbert. Recent highlights include performances of Szy- manowski’s Six Songs of a Fairy-Tale Princess at the Berlin Philharmonie, Britten’s Les Illuminations at the Vienna Musikverein and a highly acclaimed début at the Salzburg Festival in Morton Feldman’s Neither.

Since 2006, Anu Komsi has been the artistic director of the West Coast Kok- kola Opera company, of which she is a founding member. Productions include Le Nozze di Figaro, Lulu and Sebastian Fagerlund’s Döbeln, commissioned by the company and released on BIS in a highly acclaimed recording in 2010. Anu Komsi has a wide-ranging discography on various labels, including, on BIS, the world première recording of Shostakovich’s Suite on Finnish Themes (BIS-CD- 1256). In 2008 Anu Komsi was honoured with an award from the Finnish Cul- tural Foundation.

Booklet for Lindberg: Accused & Two Episodes