Heavenly Lights – Ian Bostridge

For this fifth volume in the Lockenhaus Festival series, under the artistic direction of Nicolas Altstaedt, the cellist presents two works by the Finnish composer Olli Mustonen (born 1967, a student of Rautavaara), including Heavenly Lights (Taivaanvalot) for tenor, cello, and piano, performed here by Ian Bostridge, Nicolas Altstaedt, and the composer at the piano.

The English tenor premiered the work in 2016 in its original chamber version, recorded here for the first time. Mustonen will create an orchestral version in 2020, but the original piece is nevertheless titled Symphony: “This work was a revelation to me the moment I discovered it. We are immersed in the era of Finnish bards and the folk poems of the Kalevala, a legendary and mystical world whose stories touch us all, regardless of our country of origin,” says Altstaedt. “A closeness to folk art like the one Kodály sought and found”: his Sonata, Op. 4 (1909–1910), his Sonatina (1920), and the Sonata that Mustonen wrote in 2006—all for cello and piano—also make up this exhilarating and spellbinding program.