Witold Lutosławski Symphonies 2 & 3
ARTISTS: Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra, Hannu Lintu, conductor
COMPOSER: Witold Lutosławski
LABEL: Ondine | ODE 1332-5
GRAMMY® NOMINATED IN: BEST ORCHESTRAL PERFORMANCE
This new release, the second volume in the Witold Lutosławski symphony cycle by the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra and its chief conductor Hannu Lintu, brings together two symphonies which belong to the most remarkable symphonic creations of the late 20th century. In his 2nd and 3rd symphonies Lutosławski is laying out the principal foundations of his creative legacy. Conductor Hannu Lintuwas recently nominated for a GRAMMY for his recording of new works by Kaija Saariaho (ODE 1309-2) together with the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra. He also won the Gramophone Award and ICMA Award for his recording of the Bartók Violin Concertos together with Christian Tetzlaff and the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra. The same recording was also nominated for the 2019 BBC Music Magazine Awards. Recordings by the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra under Hannu Lintu on Ondine have gathered numerous excellent reviews in the international press. Two of their recordings were nominated for Gramophone Awards in 2018. One of them, including orchestral works and songs by Jean Sibelius also won an ICMA Award in January 2018. The first volume of their Lutosławski symphony cycle was chosen ‘Recording of the Month’ by the BBC Music Magazine in February 2019.
Performers
Hannu Lintu
Hannu Lintu is one of Finland's most sought-after conductors and is rapidly creating a major international career. He has been Artistic Director and Chief Conductor of the Tampere Philharmonic Orchestra 2009-2013, and also Principal Guest Conductor of the RTÉ National Symphony Orchestra in Dublin. Before assuming the new role of Chief Conductor of the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra in 2013, he was the orchestra's Chief Guest Conductor in 2012. Hannu Lintu was previously Chief Conductor of the Turku Philharmonic Orchestra and Artistic Director of the Helsingborg Symphony Orchestra. He is a regular guest conductor with the Avanti! Chamber Orchestra in Finland and was Artistic Director of the orchestra's Summer Sounds festival in 2005.
Hannu Lintu studied the cello, the piano, and subsequently conducting with Jorma Panula at the Sibelius Academy. He participated in master classes with Myung-Whun Chung at the Accademia Chigiana in Siena, Italy, and won first prize in the Nordic Conducting Competition in Bergen in 1994. He has appeared with the Cincinnati Symphony, Indianapolis Symphony, St Louis Symphony, Toronto Symphony, City of Birmingham Symphony and Dallas Symphony orchestras, the Stuttgarter Philharmoniker, Orquesta Sinfonica de RTVE, Tokyo Metropolitan Symphony Orchestra, National Symphony Orchestra, Taiwan, and the Hong Kong Philharmonic, Seoul Philharmonic and Royal Flemish Philharmonic orchestras. He has also conducted a cycle of the complete Beethoven Symphonies with the Iceland Symphony Orchestra. Hannu Lintu has conducted several recordings for Ondine.
Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra
The Radio Orchestra of ten players founded in 1927 grew to symphony orchestra strength in the 1960s. Its previous Chief Conductors have been Toivo Haapanen, Nils-Eric Fougstedt, Paavo Berglund, Okko Kamu, Leif Segerstam, Jukka-Pekka Saraste and Sakari Oramo.
The latest contemporary music is a major item in the repertoire of the FRSO, which each year premieres a number of Yle commissions. Another of the orchestra's tasks is to record all Finnish orchestral music for the Yle archive.
The FRSO has recorded works by Eötvös, Nielsen, Hakola, Lindberg, Saariaho, Sallinen, Kaipainen, Kokkonen and others, and the debut disc of the opera Aslak Hetta by Armas Launis. Its discs have reaped some major distinctions, such as the BBC Music Magazine Award and the Académie Charles Cros Award. The disc of the Sibelius and Lindberg Violin Concertos (Sony BMG) with Lisa Batiashvili as the soloist received the MIDEM Classical Award in 2008, in which year the New York Times chose the other Lindberg disc as its Record of the Year.
The FRSO regularly tours to all parts of the world. All the FRSO concerts both in Finland and abroad are broadcast, usually live, on Yle Radio 1. They can also be heard and watched with excellent live stream quality on the FRSO website.
Press
"This magnificent new recording completes a strong symphonic portrait of the Polish modernist master. This is a potent and logical pairing of works both written on a two-movement scheme. Hannu Lintu conducts with lucidity and rigour in a work exploring Beethovenian notions of tension and release. His musicians respond with brilliant, punchy playing but are also capable of dazzling refinement, something vital in a work of such intricate translucence."
— Freya Parr, BBC Music Magazine, May 2020
"Hannu Lintu and his terrific orchestra bring the same bravado and sense of adventure to Lutoslawski. The music never sounds heavy or ponderous. Listen to the snap Lintu brings to the central motif in Symphony 3 and the sense of fun in the loopy sonorities and howling brass slides in 2. He likes wit and fantasy, and thanks to the lucid recording, you can really hear the most surreal, multi-layered textures."
— Jack Sullivan, American Record Guide, July 2020
"Lintu’s performances are superb. There is a good deal of fast and intricate writing for the woodwind and strings and this is realized with confidence and a verve which goes beyond previous performances I have heard. The brass can menace and roar as required and the tuned percussion adds vivid colour. Strongly recommended."
— Stephen Barber, MusicWeb International, April 2020