CD Recordings
CD RECORDINGS:
ILMARI HANNIKAINEN: EARLY SONGS (TIMO RIIHONEN; KIRSI TIIHONEN; TERHI DOSTAL)
Our new CD was released on July 1, 2024. The disc contains 32 of Ilmari Hannikainen's early solo songs with piano accompaniment. The songs are captivatingly romantic, with an impressionistic flavor. I would like to thank the CD label Hänssler Classic for excellent cooperation, and the Finnish Cultural Foundation for their generous support of our project. Special thanks to the whole Deutschlandfunk Kultur team: Recording producer Michael Havenstein, sound engineer Thomas Monnerjahn, recording assistant Conny Preißel- and executive producer Stefan Lang, who made this all possible.
Listen to my interview and full 75 minutes radio programm on our new CD on the German Broadcasting company Deutschlandfunk Kultur!
Since unfortunately the CD label could not include the lyrics and their German translations in the booklet, I publish them here.
"The two singers are sensitive and expressive. Soprano Kirsi Tiihonen, who has made a name for herself as a Wagner singer, has a warm and full voice that is well suited to lieder singing: she sings with commitment and drama, sometimes with intense restraint. Bass Timo Riihonen has a wide range, from dark, black bass to lyrical high notes. Pianist Terhi Dostal provides supportive accompaniment with incisive creative power. The sound recording is excellent in terms of balance and spaciousness." - Remy Franck, Pizzicato, 5 July 2024.
You can now buy the CD directly from me for €16,00 + shipping via ebay.
TERHI DOSTAL: FINNISH PIANO WORKS
My CD Finnish Piano Works was presented all over Germany by the German Broadcasting company Deutschlandfunk Kultur in the 9th of December, 2023, at 10 pm.
You can now buy the CD directly from me for €14,20 + shipping via ebay.
This CD was the Classical Album of the Week at radio 100,7 - the public-legal radio in Luxembourg.
"Five stars: Delightful discoveries for piano lovers" - Henry Fogel (Fanfare Magazine, USA)
"Dostal brought out all aspects of the series in a distinctive and technically brilliant way." - Prof. Eero Tarasti (Amfion, Finland)
"Terhi Dostal fearlessly immerses herself in the widely varying characters of Hannikainen's Variations (1923)." - Jari Hoffrén (Keskisuomalainen, Finland)
"The excellent album by Terhi Dostal, who works in Germany, presents the music of Ilmari Hannikainen, Aarre Merikanto and Jean Sibelius. Dostal's playing is sensitive and skillfully nuanced" - Risto Nordell (Suomen Kuvalehti, Finland)
The album contains Finnish romantic-impressionistic piano music, including e.g. Ilmari Hannikainen's most significant piano work Variations fantasques Op. 19, Sibelius' Sonatinas Op. 67 and Aarre Merikanto's fine piano pieces Op. 20.
Special thanks to the whole Deutschlandfunk Kultur team: Recording producer Michael Havenstein, sound engineer Henri Thaon, recording assistants Ole Jana & Karīna Ķemere - and executive producer Stefan Lang, who made this all possible. Thanks also to the CD label Hänssler Classic for the excellent cooperation.
Listen to another radio programme about this CD by the German Broadcasting Company, Deutschlandfunk Kultur here (in German).
TERHI DOSTAL: FINNISH IMPRESSIONS
On the album "Finnish Impressions" I play Finnish music: Jean Sibelius, Ilmari Hannikainen, Helvi Leiviskä and myself as composers. The CD contains several first recordings.
You can now buy the CD directly from me for €14,20 + shipping via ebay.
"Finnish Impressions" is published by Alba Records. The CD will soon be available at their web shop. Thank you to the producer Erkki Nisonen and the tonmeister Michael Havenstein for excellent co-operation.
FINNISH PIANO QUARTETS (HANNIKAINEN - LEIVISKÄ - LAUNIS)
Terhi Dostal, Nina Karmon, Luke Turrell, Roi Ruottinen
The CD "Finnish Piano Quartets" was released in December 2016. In this CD, I was happy to perform with Nina Karmon, Luke Turrell and Roi Ruottinen. We played Ilmari Hannikainen's, Helvi Leiviskä's and Armas Launis's music for piano quartet. The CD was immediately chosen as the CD of the week by ORF, Austrian Broadcasting Company, and introduced in an hour-long radio programme.
The Finnish Broadcasting Company Yle also welcomed the new CD with good reviews: "A performance of international standard on the Finnish Quartets... All [players] have an intensive, romantic sound, but also lots of routine in the team work. The quartet plays together much better than similar project ensembles normally. The intonation is first class, the phrases are are solidly and appealingly formed, and Terhi Dostal's colorful pianism functions as counterbalance and extension exactly as it must be when playing piano quartets. Better yet, the musicians seem to have found convincing content from these early works." Read the whole review in Finnish here.
You can now buy the CD directly from me for €18,00 + shipping via ebay.
JOHANNES BRAHMS ET AL. VIOLIN SONATAS
Terhi Dostal and Annemarie Åström
Annemarie Åström and I performed the F.A.E. Sonata by Robert Schumann, Johannes Brahms and Albert Dietrich and the both sonatas Op. 120 for clarinet and piano, as versions for violin and piano by the composer. All these works are seldom heard and recorded. Moreover, thanks to the Brahms Museum in Mürzzuschlag, we were allowed to record with the so-called Brahms Grand Piano of the museum. Read more about the CD here.
You can now buy the CD directly from me for €15,00 + shipping via ebay.
TERHI DOSTAL: BRAHMS VARIATIONS
You can now buy the CD directly from me for €17,00 + shipping via ebay.
"This new disc by Terhi Dostal is without a doubt the most satisfying Brahms recording I’ve yet to lay ears on. (...) Dostal plays Brahms as if the composer’s spirit inhabits her body and soul.
Soft passages are of feathery lightness and delicacy, loud passages are of visceral amplitude and force, and passages of virtuosic fireworks flash like bursts of diadems lighting the night sky. Dostal’s playing is no less amazing for its technical execution than it is for the sense of oneness with the composer it seems to impart to the music. It’s almost as if she has a direct line of communication to Brahms as he guides and informs her every move."
Jerry Dubins, Fanfare Magazine (Issue 35:4 Mar/Apr 2012)
"The piano music of Brahms might have been my next choice even had I not just received a marvelous disc from SIBA, with Terhi Dostal playing four sets of the composer's variations. [...] Dostal paces it all well; the sound was rich, warm and powerful..." Stereophile, September 2012 (vol. 35 no 9, page 59).
"Finnish pianist Terhi Dostal proves that she is a skilled interpreter of Brahms on this album of the legendary composer's solo piano works. One of her strongest interpretations is Variations on a Theme by Schumann. She begins the chorale-like entry solemnly, rolling the chords beautifully. Dostal is an introspective player with a lot of inner focus, yet in the dramatic variations she is full of fire, playing with precise, percussive attacks. Dostal is capable of switching musical moods very quickly, something which is necessary to a piece made up of variations."
V. Vasan, AllMusic
"Terhi Dostal plays Brahms wonderfully, the works are accurately analysed and interpreted and the playing is certain from the beginning to the end. The special feature in Dostal's pianism is the strongly internalized interpretative security and the peace created by it."
Miika Lauriala, Finnish Broadcasting Company YLE
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