"For anyone who still feels that all contemporary music is by definition attritional, and designed to make maximal demands on its audiences, then Magnus Lindberg's Clarinet Concerto, first performed in 2002, is one work to persuade them otherwise. It is that rare thing, a piece written by one of the leading European composers of our time that manages to be unfailingly approachable and rewarding without making any compromises in its musical language or technique. Conceived as a single movement lasting about 24 minutes, but falling into five distinct sections, the concerto was written specifically for the astounding soloist Kari Kriikku, and it is studded with references to other composers - the opening recalls Debussy's First Rhapsody for clarinet and orchestra, for instance, while there's a glancing reference to Respighi's Pines of Rome, about two-thirds of the way through the piece, and the bluesy smears in the last few pages inescapably evoke Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue. But there's nothing contrived about any of these moments; they are woven into an instrumental fabric that is so richly coloured, so packed with incident and instantly memorable musical ideas and so logically put together that the ear absorbs everything without hesitation, and when the work has ended immediately wants to experience it all again. Of course, Kriikku's virtuosity is an enormous help in projecting this soundscape with such life and colour. Composer and clarinettist go back a long way - in 1980 in Helsinki, they were the founder members (along with conductor Esa-Pekka Salonen) of the experimental performing ensemble Toimii, and have collaborated regularly ever since. Lindberg composed his Clarinet Quintet for Kriikku in 1992, and it is hard to imagine that this fabulously attractive work would ever have appeared without him to play it so brilliantly. If the disc is essential listening for the sake of the Clarinet Concerto alone, the remainder is of high-quality too. The "Gran Duo" for large wind band (13 woodwind, 11 brass) can seem a bit of an academic exercise, slightly dry and neoclassical, as though without the silky veils of string tone with which Lindberg so often cushions his orchestral writing, his harmonic world immediately loses a sensuous dimension. But there's not a note out of place, every chord seems totally right in its context and its sectional construction is supremely logical; technically it's beyond reproach. "Chorale" is Lindberg's version of the Bach chorale Es Ist Genug, quoted by Berg in the last movement of his Violin Concerto; it is a wonderfully compact yet multi-layered reworking, which gains remorselessly in intensity - an unnerving little masterpiece, all over in six minutes." The Guardian.

"A marvellous vehicle for the amazing virtuosity of clarinettist Kari Kriikku, this is a shiny, sophisticated, nostalgic cultural artefact... a stunning disc." BBC Music Magazine.