Reply To: Favourite Nordic film composers?
Well, those two are very good ones for sure, both of the recording you mention I have and would highly recommend. The Salonen recording of Debussy’s Prélude à l’après-midi d’un faune may be the one I would pick if I could keep only one of the recordings I have. I’ve got more Salonen (Mahler, Bartók, Lutoslawski, etc.); of all the recordings of Stravinsky’s Le Sacre du Printemps I have, I think Salonen’s is my favorite (packs a lot of whop).
My first encounter with Salonen as a composer was an album with five of his compositions, which I picked up in 2001: LA Variations, Five Images After Sappho, Giro, Mania, Gambit
I don’t think I ever listened to them all at once in a row, as I like to let them sink in, I started with “L.A. Vartiations” and then “Gambit”, and the others at a later time (even after I had some other Salonen albums). The last was “Five Images after Sappho”, which was beautiful when I finally listened to it, I just had to wait for the right moment. It’s a great album if you are interested in contemporary classical music by a great composer/conductor. Top album. That was my start with Salonen as a composer, I have since picked up most of what is officially recorded/released (violin concerto, piano concerto, etc.)
As a starting point, the album “Wing on Wing” may be a good album for those with a film music background, it contains very “filmic” orchestral pieces, such “Foreign Bodies” and “Insominia”.
My most recent acquisition is his cello concerto with Yo-Yo Ma (released on Pentatone), but I haven’t yet listened to it.