An ambitious lockdown project bears fruit
The Strad Issue: May 2026
Description: An ambitious lockdown project bears fruit
Musicians: Niklas Walentin, Stéphane Tran Ngoc (violin) Danish Chamber Players/Anne Marie Granau
Works: Music by Gerstrøm, Järventausta, Kolstad, Rasmussen, Ruders, Tarrodi and Vaka
Catalogue number: NAXOS 970401
New Nordic Pocket Concertos
While many other musicians were throwing together home-made videos of solo works, Danish/Swiss violinist Niklas Walentin clearly had grander pandemic ambitions for himself and his eight-strong Danish Chamber Players. Together they have brought into being seven miniature violin concertos from composers from the full breadth of Nordic nations.
The results are inevitably varied, but never less than striking. Norwegian Aksel Kolstad’s Apollo, subtitled ‘The Ukrainian Violin Concerto’ is sometimes a little naively literal in its depictions of battle and heroism, while Icelandic Veronique Vaka’s Erda positions its two violin soloists (here Walentin is joined by Stéphane Tran Ngoc) so deeply within its brooding, granitic textures that it’s hard to hear it as a concerto at all.
However, Faroese Sunleif Rasmussen plays moving, sometimes dream-like games with the seasonal tune ‘Es ist ein Ros entsprungen’, and Greenlandic Arnannguaq Gerstrøm channels whalesong and fracturing icebergs to impassioned effect in Broken Inua.
Dane Poul Ruders’s Pocket Concerto is joyfully uncompromising in his Webern-like adaptation of an existing violin-and-piano work (Three Tiny Pieces for Great Friends), while Finn Joel Järventausta draws remarkable sonic richness from the tiny ensemble in the gloriously eclectic moods and colours of his sometimes tongue-in-cheek Songs, Games and Dances.
To open, Andrea Tarrodi offers exquisitely delicate, evocative snapshots of The Four Seasons of her native Sweden.
Walentin is an endlessly enthusiastic, nimble and adaptable presence throughout and his Danish Chamber Players are no less compelling in their contributions.
DAVID KETTLE
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