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Artist: Wilhelmina Smith
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Wilhelmina Smith:

Works For Solo Cello, Per Norgard, Poul Ruders

Cellist Wilhelmina Smith's second album on Ondine continues exploring contemporary Nordic repertoire for solo cello. In her new album Smith has focus on Danish contemporary composers, Per Ngård (b. 1932) and Poul Ruders (b. 1949).

Both Nørgård and Ruders are known for their large-scale orchestral works. Nørgård, in particular, is known for his eight symphonies and has been hailed by many as one of the greatest living symphonists. It is therefore intriguing to look closer to his two very early lyrical solo cello sonatas, early masterpieces written just before completing his 1st Symphony. In 1980, the composer revised his second sonata by adding an extensive second movement, almost an entirely new sonata, to the existing work. Nørgård's 3rd sonata "What – Is the Word!" from 1999 is a short "Sonata breve" that takes its title from a quote by Irish playwriter Samuel Beckett.     

Wilhelmina Smith:

Works for Solo Cello by Salonen and Saariaho

On a more intimate scale, Ondine/Naxos offers American cellist Wilhelmina Smith in a stimulating array of solo pieces by two of Finland's greatest modern musical luminaries, Esa-Pekka Salonen and Kaija Saariaho. Three works by Salonen are followed by four of Saariaho's, linked by a chiacona by seventeenth-century Modenese composer Giuseppe Colombi that inspired the last of Salonen's pieces (Sarabande per un coyote) and the first of Saariaho's (Dreaming Chaconne). (Both are components of the Mystery Variations, commissioned from thirty-one leading composers by Finnish cellist Anssi Karttunen in 2010.)