First recordings
The Swedish record company BIS has grown its complete edition of Jean Sibelius’s works with a new album of Sibelius rarities. The 13 box-set “Sibelius Edition” was originally brought to close in 2011, but since then several new works or fragments of Sibelius’s oeuvre have been discovered or become available. Now the fragments, including for example the assumed sketches for Sibelius’ 8th symphony, are available in audible format on the album The Unknown Sibelius (BIS-2065), along with other rarely heard pieces by Sibelius.
First recordings of several more recent works have also become available on CD. For example, Ostrobothnian Chamber Orchestra’s new album Epifania (Alba ABCD 355) includes five contemporary works, four of them first time on record. These include Jukka Tiensuu’s Sulci, written for OCO in 2011, and Usko Meriläinen’s Summer concerto Geasseija niehku from 1994.
Earlier this year, Oulu Symphony Orchestra recorded Kimmo Hakola’s Guitar concerto with guitarist Timo Korhonen and conductor Santtu-Matias Rouvali. The concerto was released along with Hosokawa’s guitar concerto in May by Ondine (ODE 1219-2). Other recent first recordings by Ondine include Magnus Lindberg’s Jubilees and Souvenir (on ODE 1175-2 along with Lindberg’s Violin concerto) and Einojuhani Rautavaara’s Missa a cappella (ODE 1223-2).