Tampere Filharmonia’s new album cherishes the rich musical heritage of the Finnish composer Jouni Kaipainen
After a while, the Tampere Philharmonic Orchestra (TPO) is releasing a new album. The album is featuring the world premiere of works by composer Jouni Kaipainen and celebrating long and fruitful co-operation TPO had with him. The album SOUTH BY NORTHEAST features conductor Hannu Lintu and pianist Juhani Lagerspetz as soloist. The album continues TPO's collaboration with Alba Records.
Jouni Kaipainen (1956-2015) was a polymath in contemporary Finnish music and a Renessance figure who, despite his untimely death, left a rich and varied oeuvre. Having moved to Tampere from Helsinki, the Tampere Philharmonic Orchestra (TPO) became Kaipainen’s “second family” and home orchestra, which premiered many of his major works in the 2000s. For the Tampere Philharmonic Orchestra he composed many works, including symphonies, concertos and chamber music works. Close collaboration with TPO enriched the repertoire of both the orchestra and the composer and brought Kaipainen’s music to the attention of a wider audience.
On the new album, the orchestra is under the baton of Hannu Lintu, the composer’s trusted maestro who served as TPO’s chief conductor from 2009 to 2013. Lintu has a distinguished international conducting career and he has introduced Kaipainen’s music to the world.
The album SOUTH BY NORTHEAST, released on May 20, 2025, contains Kaipainen’s Piano Concerto Op. 55, which was premiered by Juhani Lagerspetz and the Radio Symphony Orchestra in 1997. The monumental work is now being recorded for the first time.
In addition to the Piano Concerto, the album features Kaipainen’s work North by North-East, a commission from the Nordic Music Committee. The title refers to the great box office movie by Alfred Hitchcock (1959) in which the characters end up scrambling about the giant presidential faces at Mount Rushmore in the northwest USA. In Kaipainen’s composition, the shift from town to country takes place in Finland, and the journey may be thought of as beginning in Helsinki or Tampere and heading northeast to the wild regions of Savo-Karelia. The travel guide seems to have been Sibelius and his Tapiola.
In the album’s closing track, Aubade beninoise, the composer unloads the positive cultural shock of his trip to Benin, Africa. The song takes the listener through West African rhythms to the whirlwind of Finnish shamanism.
Tampere Philharmonic Orchestra’s new album SOUTH BY NORTHEAST is published by Alba Music. It is sold at the Tritonus record shop and the Tampere Hall Shop, as well as at Alba’s online shop www.alba.fi.
The song list of album SOUTH BY NORTHEAST
Jouni Kaipainen:
Piano Concerto Op. 55
North by North-East Op 63
Aubade beninoise Op. 86b
Tampere Philharmonic Orchestra
Hannu Lintu, conductor
Juhani Lagerspetz, piano
