Review: Pekka Kostiainen (b.1944) is perhaps not known as well as other Finnish composers outside his native land. Although he wrote mainly instrumental music early in his career, he now concentrates on choral music. Pekka Kostiainen is the present conductor and composes extensively for them. Vox Aurea have excelled in performing his demanding but inspiring music, and taking it on their world tours. Tuhat kertaa tuhat vuotta (A thousand times a thousand years) is the most substantial a capella work on this 6th disc of Alba's "Kostiainen Conducts Kostiainen" series. It is a setting of a poem by Lauri Viita, one of the central characters of post-World War II literature in Finland, and narrates the origin of the world from an empty Cosmos, the building of mountains, ocean formation and the development of life. Softly vibrating tone-clusters suggest the void, magically expanding into the warm church acoustic, and a variety of eerie vocalisations including clicks, hisses and open-mouth tapping give way to firmer melodic lines. The altos, with more robust tone than the sweet sopranos, intone the verses in a modal runic chant style which derives from the Kalevala, the Finnish National epic, very close to the narrative style used by Sibelius in Kullervo and his epic tone poems. The choir are divided into four groups, two of sopranos and two altos, and the music moves antiphonally across the sound stage, suggesting the dynamic events at hand. This really is a tour-de-force of choral pictorialism, a miniature epic in its own right.

Songlist: 1000 x 1000 years (1991), To Finland's mothers (1998), There was a young lady, whose nose, There was an old man with a flute, There was an old lady of France, There was an old man of Cape Horn, There was a young lady, whose chin, There was an old person of Cromer, There was an old maid of Stroud, There was an old man in a tree, The roach, An eel is no adder, The perch, The salmon, The flounder waltz, The freshest fish, Glory be to God, Teach us to create, There they all sit in total silence, Why should I not sing?, If I should sing, I still have a song to sing, Dulce est, Nihil est perpetuum, Ut ameris, Ut fl atus venti, Acta est fabula, The country cat's secret fishy wish (2003), Lullaby, Vainamoinen's legacy (2006)

Review: The children in the Vox Aurea choir, one of the leading Finnish choral groups, are fortunate to be under the direction of Pekka Kostianinen, one of the finest choral composers, and one who likes to test his ideas on his choir before committing them to paper. Finnish folk tradition has been an inspiration for many of these works, the language providing a rhythmic undercurrent and the sound of the words music in itself. "LoRuLaiLee" is a cross-section of Pekka's main works for children's choir. 12 tunes, some favorites: the title tune, "Kiurun tie," "Satakieli," "Jaakobin pojat," and "Pah' on olla paimenessa I and II." This is ethereal, soaring, stunning material, especially for a children's choir.

Songlist: Pyhan Franciscus Assislaisen rukous, Lorulailee, Kiuren tie, Tikanpolkka, Satakieli, Menninkaisen kuutamotanssit, Hiihtojuustoa syonyt lehma tuli hieman levottomaksi, Jaakobin pojat, Revontulet, Pah' on olla paimenessa I, Pah' on olla paimenessa II