Delving into
Magnus Lindberg: Orchestral Music, one might feel overwhelmed by the sheer quantity of works that are included. A brilliant composer with a truly virtuosic approach to writing for the orchestra,
Lindberg produced an astonishing amount of music between 1982 and 2005, the period covered by this chronologically arranged box set from Ondine. Spread out over four CDs and employing the talents of conductors
Sakari Oramo,
Esa-Pekka Salonen, and
Jukka-Pekka Saraste, who lead the
Avanti! Chamber Orchestra, the
Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra, and the
Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, this recording project ran from 1992 to 2008 and was a major undertaking, evidently a matter of great pride for all involved.
Lindberg's vibrantly colorful and splendidly hyperactive music is bigger than life and just as complicated, and it requires dynamic musicians to pull off his uncompromising and difficult scores. Those who are fully versed in the extended techniques, timbres, and sonorities of avant-garde music will relish the density and profusion of
Lindberg's textures and instrumental combinations, though others who like conventional orchestral music will be daunted by the music's edginess and frequent harshness. (The quotation from
Salonen on the box mentions
Richard Strauss,
Maurice Ravel, and
Igor Stravinsky, whose influences on
Lindberg are real, though no one should take from this any idea that his music sounds remotely like theirs.) Even so, this set will be appreciated by many adventurous listeners.