Different Voices

Kamus Quartet · Jean Sibelius · Jouni Kaipainen · Jukka Tiensuu

2014 · ABCD 383

Credits

Performers: Kamus Quartet
Composers: Jean SibeliusJouni KaipainenJukka Tiensuu

About this release

The album of the year 2015 is "Different Voices" by Alba Records & the Kamus quartet
"In the middle of the year-long worship of the Sibelius monolith, the Kamus String Quartet released a record that honors Sibelius in a better way - by genuinely connecting him to modern times. Violinists Terhi Paldanius and Jukka Untamala, violist Jussi Tuhkanen and cellist Petja Kainulainen have played as the Kamus Quartet for thirteen years, and have done it in their own distinctive style: flamboyant but under control, from a friend base but ambitiously. The album as a whole and the making of the Kamus quartet is a completely new phenomenon in Finland, which the young hockey players already presented on the opposite side of the culture. At the top, you don't have to squeeze a stick or a bow alone, but you can smile by yourself and enjoy doing it together. Art music, this time especially chamber music, shows the way to a better world, not only as an art experience."
Yle Klassinen/10 February 2016

Tracks

String quartet d-minor op.56 "Voces Intimae" (1908-09)
1.1 Andante - Allegro molto moderatocomp. Jean SibeliusISRC FIABA15002896:25
2.2 Vivacecomp. Jean SibeliusISRC FIABA15002902:33
3.3 Adagio di moltocomp. Jean SibeliusISRC FIABA150029110:09
4.4 Allegretto (ma pesante)comp. Jean SibeliusISRC FIABA15002925:29
5.5 Allegro - Piu Allegrocomp. Jean SibeliusISRC FIABA15002935:31
String quartet no.7 op.98 "Batsheba" (2013)
6.Jousikvartetto no.7 op.98 "Batsheba" (2013)comp. Jouni Kaipainen (1956-2015)ISRC FIABA150029413:41
Jousikvartetto d-minor op.56 "Voces Intimae" (1908-09)
7.Rack (2008)comp. Jukka Tiensuu (b.1948)ISRC FIABA150029513:10

Reviews

Vuoden levy 2015 on Alba Recordsin & Kamus-kvartetin ”Different Voices”
”Keskelle Sibelius-monoliitin vuoden kestänyttä palvontaa Kamus-jousikvartetti täräytti levyn, joka tekee Sibeliukselle kunniaa sillä paremmalla tavalla – liittämällä hänet aidosti nykyaikaan. Viulistit Terhi Paldanius ja Jukka Untamala, alttoviulisti Jussi Tuhkanen ja sellisti Petja Kainulainen ovat soittaneet Kamus-kvartettina kolmetoista vuotta, ja tehneet sen omalla, erottuvalla tyylillään: heittäytyvästi mutta…
10.2.2016 · Yle Klassinen
”Kamus-jousikvartetto ajaa tietoisesti kvartettomusiikin asemaa. Toisella levyllään yhtye (Terhi Paldanius, Jukka Untamala, Jussi Tuhkanen, Petja Kainulainen) rinnastaa Voces intimae-hitin lajityypin uusiin tuuliin. Sibeliusta Kamus tulkitsee aidon intiimisti, vailla paasausta tai patetiaa. Ylipäätään he uskaltavat luopua tarkkarajaisesta, yksilöidystä jousisoinnista ja heittäytyä aavistelevasti värisevään, pienenpienissä liikkeissä etenevään unenomaiseen musisointiin, jossa neljästä tulee…
Rondo 11.2015 · Auli Särkiö
Kaipainen’s quartet is based almost programmatically on Volter Kilpi’s vividly descriptive retelling of the Biblical story of David and Bathsheba. The composer even provides indications as to the meaning of the work’s clearly delineated episodes—nocturnal love scene, the battlefield murder of Bathsheba’s spouse, her death, fading into the desert and so on. Kaipainen’s music is heavily influenced by pre-dodecaphonic Schoenberg—the first quartet, Verklärte Nacht—and expressionism, Bartókian night…
© 2017 Records International
The disc is well recorded but a little close, especially given the beautiful acoustic potential of the recording venue, the Schauman Hall in Jakobstad.
The Strad · Andrew Mellor · March 16, 2016
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The work’s title applies largely to the slow third movement, and here Kamus shows their more sensitive side with a beautifully sculpted reading that is touching without being sentimental.
The Art Music Lounge · Lynn René Bayley · March 17, 2017
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Om the other two works, we hear some of the ugliest sounds ever made by four string instruments.
ClassicalCDReview.com · Robert Benson · April 11, 2017
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The performance of the Sibelius is warm, nuanced, and in the fast sections, light and lithe.
American Record Guide · Jack Sullivan · June 21, 2017
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Komppa again: “Tiensuu uses the four string instruments as a kind of 16-string, 4-bow super-instrument, in which the voices of the individual instruments are tied together to create a single tapestry.” All of this music is extraordinarily well played and splendidly recorded.
Fanfare · Richard A. Kaplan · August 14, 2017
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