Various composers: Solitudes: Baltic Reflections, Mr McFall's Chamber

Mr McFall’s Chamber have a unique history in presenting recordings and concerts with maverick programming across various styles. Their latest recording is no exception, combining music from the isolated Eastern Baltic seaboard with the little-known hits of Finnish tango. Instead of indulging in esotericism, the McFall’s players give us an enlightening hour of listening through their superlative chamber music skill and clever curation.

The first of the promised Finnish tango works is Aulis Sallinen’s Introduction and Tango Overture. For the uninitiated (it’s safe to assume that most of us are), this style of music is immediately engaging, there’s something familiar about snatches of the rhythm and rapid dynamic contours, but also a pervasive melancholy that is unmistakably Baltic in character. The other two tango works come near the end of the disc, both in arrangements for the present ensemble by McFall. Toivo Kärki’s Täysikuu and Unto Mononen’s Satumaa are more recognisably ‘tango’ than Sallinen’s later, deeper realisation of the style. It seems inescapably odd that they were written in Finland in the 1950s, but with performances as committed and dazzling as these, does it really matter?

High-quality playing isn’t only reserved for the full-ensemble works. Erkki-Sven Tüür’s Dedication makes excellent use of eerie cello harmonics and played-from-the-inside piano strings, contrasted with ‘straight’ playing of highly melodic sections. The intense musicianship of Su-a Lee and Maria Martinova, coupled with exceptional sound engineering, really makes this work come alive.

Martinova also plays two works for solo piano, Bružaitė’s rhythmical Bangos and Pärt’s tender Für Alina. The Latvian Pēteris Vasks’s Little Summer Music for violin and piano, written in 1985, depicts the summery landscape of his homeland through folk-like tunes and dancing accompaniments, Vasks’s sadness at his Soviet-occupied country’s struggle for freedom comes through in a number of surprise twists and violent outbursts, its apparent simplicity, as booklet essayist Ivan Moody writes, deceptive.

The disc culminates in a wonderfully moving arrangement of Sibelius’s Finlandia Hymn, set by Robert McFall for the whole group and the otherworldly sound of the musical saw (expertly played by Su-a Lee), which takes the melody. The emotional pull of the work makes it a fitting close to this exploration of solitude, without a hint of excessive sentiment.