Colin Currie with composer Kalevi Aho
In September 2020, BIS Records releases Kalevi Aho Seidi | Symphony No.5, with Colin Currie as soloist in the 2010 composition Sieidi, alongside the Lahti Symphony Orchestra and principal conductor Dima Slobodeniouk.
Kalevi Aho is one of today’s most prolific composers of large-scale orchestral scores, with 17 symphonies and 32 concertos to date. Sieidi was written for Colin Currie, and gave the piece its world premiere in 2006. He now performs it regularly with orchestras across the world and it is one of the composers most performed works. Its title, a word in Sami, is used in reference to the rituals and shamanism of indigenous peoples around the world, and the solo part, which makes use of nine different percussion instruments, begins and ends with the djembe and darbuka, drums usually heard in African and Arab music. The instruments are placed in a row towards the front of the stage, and during the course of the work the soloist makes his way across the platform, from the right to the left and back, reinforcing the ritualistic dimension of the piece.
Colin writes about Sieidi and his connection with the composer, Kalevi Aho for Gramophone’s blog:
“Part of this composer’s mastery is the structural backbone to all his music, and the architectural conceit of this piece is frankly fantastic”