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"The Keski-Pohjanmaa Chamber Orchestra, a cutting-edge ensemble from the Finnish orchestra scene, has enjoyed collaborating with numerous composers over the years. It is therefore only natural that the fruits of this collaboration should be presented on an album of their own. Released by Alban SACD, "Dedicated to" contains a selection of Finnish-Latvian music dedicated to the orchestra. Under the baton of its honorary conductor Juha Kangas, the well-rehearsed ensemble plays with its usual passion, and the orchestra's performance is of the highest quality.

The album opens with Kalevi Aho's ...jäätyivät umpeen levottomat vedet (The Restless Waters Froze Over), the first movement of his Third Chamber Symphony from 1996, which also features a saxophone soloist in its other movements.

Onut? Narbutait?'s aphoristically titled Oliko se perhonen - Was there a butterfly? from 2013 draws on the sounds of Central Ostrobothnia to create a powerfully intense, wonderfully graphic edge. I like Narbutait?'s music in general, and this work, composed with the special characteristics of the Central Ostrobothnian Chamber Orchestra in mind, is one of the finest string orchestra works I have ever encountered. Erkki Salmenhaara's string ensemble works Elegia II and Elegia V remind us that the composer was always in tune with his time. Elegia II for two string quartets, composed in 1963, brought György Ligeti's soundscapes to Finnish music; Elegia V for string orchestra, composed in 1995, is, in contrast, a free-tonal, almost naïve neo-Romantic, short, melancholic poem. Even closer to our own time is one of Einojuhani Rautavaara's last works, Canto V from 2012, which was composed for the 40th anniversary of the Central Ostrobothnia Chamber Orchestra. However, the most recent work on the album is P?teris Vasks' Musica serena, which is a birthday present for Juha Kangas, who turned 70 a couple of years ago.

Listen to Yle Klassinen New Albums 9/29/2017, edited by Ville Komppa/10/3/2017

"Guaranteed top quality from Kokkola! An album consisting of works dedicated to the Central Ostrobothnia Chamber Orchestra and its founder and honorary conductor Juha Kangas."

Rondo/10-2017

"The Central Ostrobothnia Chamber Orchestra, founded in Kokkola, has recorded an album featuring works of art music dedicated to honorary conductor Juha Kangas. The musicians' virtuosity serves the moods from the very first stirring notes. The compositions of Erkki Salmenhaara and Einojuhani Rautavaara in particular exude a captivating grandeur."

**** Ilkka/ Juha Seitz 30.10.2017

"Over the decades, composers have dedicated numerous works to JUHA KANKAAN and the Pohjanmaa Chamber Orchestra. The only composer missing from the album is Pehr Henrik Nordgren, who is well represented on the orchestra's other recordings.

KANKAAN's direct, honest, and powerful style of interpretation is evident in the opening movement of Kalevi Aho's Chamber Symphony No. 3: "...the restless waters froze over."

The glissandos and free string bows of the twenty-piece string orchestra are like electric shocks. There is also great tension – albeit internal – in the misty triads that freeze in between.

Lithuanian composer Onuté Narbutait?'s "Was there a butterfly?" is the mysterious heart of the album. The quiet clusters, bunches of closely spaced notes, are frighteningly beautiful, especially when played with extreme concentration by the KPKO. The intensity with which the music reaches for clarity is also frightening. The album progresses towards more balanced music. The turning point is between Erkki Salmenhaara's two works. The early Elegia II is built on chord fields, while the later Elegia V is reduced to Sibellian chord sequences.

Einojuhani Rautavaara established melodic parallelism as one of his means of expression, with the second interval leaving a sharp mark. This sweetly haunting tone is often spoiled by a heavy vibrato. Kangas and the KPKO give a masterclass in how to clean up the intervals in Canto V (Towards the Heart of Light). The rough journey gains more hope and a brighter light.

Latvian Peteris Vasks' Musica Serena concludes the album with a soothing melancholy after the richly sung climax has subsided.

FINLAND has a few orchestras that have reached a high international level. One of them is the KPKO, whose playing is characterized by unique directness and uncompromising integrity. "

***** Helsingin Sanomat/Jukka Isopuro 1.11.2017

"The Central Ostrobothnia Chamber Orchestra and its founder and honorary conductor Juha Kangas are ardent advocates of new music. The new Alba album contains works written for them by various composers over a period of 20 years. The styles of the works are very different, but Kangas' style and the chamber orchestra's distinctive sound allow us to imagine common denominators between them. At the very least, a strong ethos and the pursuit of emotional honesty emerge as such – for these musicians, "serious is fun," even though folk music is part of their identity.