LEPO SUMERA (1950-2000): Symphony No. 6, ESA-PEKKA SALONEN (b.1958): Gambit, ERKKI-SVEN TÜÜR (b.1959): Fireflower, ARVO PÄRT (b.1935): Cantus in Memory of Benjamin Britten, AULIS SALLINEN (b.1935): Symphony No. 8.

Description: The second-ever CD recordings of both symphonies: Sumera's last work (2000) has a first movement which alternates faster, anxiety-ridden passages with quiet "halts" and whose final one is reflective, resigned and, ultimately, transfigured. Sallinen's 2001 symphony juxtaposes contrasting material tied together by repeating motifs and the employment of woodwinds and brass as blocks of sound to contrast with the strings with often exposed percussion writing. The mood in the symphony is one of dark unease punctuated both by outbursts of anger and by more lyrical themes which tend to be defeated by the overall sense of menace and danger. Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra; Paavo Järvi.