Juha Kangas - Pehr Henrik Nordgren (2005)

In these three works for strings, Pehr Henrik Nordgren displays his exhaustive catalog of technical devices and impressive sonorities, but demonstrates that he has too few musical ideas, insufficient methods to develop them, and little concept of form. The various sounds Nordgren requires of the string orchestra are not novel, since every harmonic, tremolo, snap pizzicato, and glissando has been heard before; and his juxtapositions of rich triadic harmonies in divisi voicings with abrupt atonal gestures in solo parts are stock-in-trade mannerisms of the avant-garde. Nordgren's distracted Rock Score for 19 strings, Op. 100 (1997), and his desultory Transe-Chordal for 15 strings, Op. 67 (1985), are easy to dismiss for their predictability, and perhaps more rightly bypassed for their shapelessness and disconnected meandering from event to event, without thematic continuity. The Concerto No. 1 for cello and string orchestra, Op. 50 (1980), may be easier to accept because the solo part lends some semblance of organization to Nordgren's rambling thoughts, and focuses the listener's concentration adequately. Cellist Marko Ylonen plays with a rich, dark tone and melancholy expression, and Juha Kangas and the Ostrobothnian Chamber Orchestra provide a rather understated accompaniment. Yet this piece, like its companions, is too amorphous, lacking in substance, and ultimately forgettable for its vagueness. The reproduction is tolerable, but often too soft to hear without straining. -- Blair Sanderson