# SS 28.11.20 - Aho #5



## Mika (Jul 24, 2009)

A continuation of the Saturday Symphonies Tradition:

Welcome to another weekend of symphonic listening!

For your listening pleasure this weekend:

Kalevi Aho (1949 - )

Symphony #5

1. Beginning
2. Bar 113	
3. Bar 273. Poco meno mosso	
4. Bar 489. Lento

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Post what recording you are going to listen to giving details of Orchestra / Conductor / Chorus / Soloists etc - Enjoy!


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## Rogerx (Apr 27, 2018)

Kalevi Aho - Symphony n°5 - Max Pommer
I don't have it but going see this one later


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## Mika (Jul 24, 2009)

This weekend we'll listen Aho's 5th symphony. I will listen my recent purchase:









This symphony is available on youtube also:


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## Haydn man (Jan 25, 2014)

I shall be streaming this version 
Another new work this week


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## cougarjuno (Jul 1, 2012)

Pommer and Leipzig via Spotify. I haven't listened to much Aho but here's my opportunity


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## Simplicissimus (Feb 3, 2020)

Haydn man said:


> View attachment 146692
> 
> 
> I shall be streaming this version
> Another new work this week


Same here. This is the recording that I can get in ultra-HD (24-bit/96 kHz) on my streaming service, and it's sounding outstanding on my system.


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## Malx (Jun 18, 2017)

Haydn man said:


> View attachment 146692


I have given this recording a listen via Qobuz - an interesting work that I am not too sure of at this stage, it has a lot going on and for me all was not obvious on first hearing but certainly enough the warrant further investigation. I have bookmarked it as one to return to.

I also read that at times the orchestra is treated as two smaller entities which play at different tempos which would help explain why I struggled a little with the piece.

Nice selection.


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## Kiki (Aug 15, 2018)

I like Kalevi Aho's sound world very much. I've had his No. 5 from Prommer/Aho/LepzigRSO on Ondine for some time. It's full of purpose and it has a very good sense of movement. The polyphonic textures at the climax is awesome. Out of curiosity I listened on Spotify to the more recent Slobodeniouk/Ots/LahtiSO on BIS. I was immediately won over by its more crystalline articulation. (It is also a lot faster although it does not feel so.) A really excellent account. I need to get this new recording!


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## KenOC (Mar 7, 2011)

From time to time I have dipped into Kalevi Aho and have generally found it not to my taste. Still, it’s nice to give this music another try. I listened to Max Pommer’s performance of Aho’s Symphony No. 5.

The work is just less than a half-hour long and consists of a single movement. It seems to be laid out in six or seven “segments” played without pause. Each segment usually develops a single rhythm (sometimes more than one) and perhaps[s a melodic fragment or two as well. Rhythms vary from complex to simple waltzes and marches, and even Beethoven's Morse code "V". Also, music from earlier segments may come a-visiting in later ones.

Most of these developments are quite obsessive and involve long crescendos. Various parts of the orchestra often join in with their own ideas and themes, seemingly unrelated to the ideas being developed but adding to the noise of the general crescendo. The louder passages (and there are many!) make me think of two orchestras trying to pass each other in a narrow corridor while each vies to drown the other out. Quite Ivesian, it seems to me! 

Needless to say, I was captivated and heard the beautiful hushed ending with some regret. Did I like it? Hard to say. But I’ll need to revisit it to see if I can figure out who won.

Thanks SS for a fun work this weekend!


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