Piano virtuoso Risto-Matti Marin continues his series of brilliant solo piano recordings, this time with recent Finnish piano repertoire. The album contains only premiere recordings by composers Eero Hämeenniemi, Matthew Whittall, Juho Miettinen and Matei Gheorghiu. Beautiful pianism and interesting new contemporary works, which all lean towards different traditions in their own personal ways. If you find contemporary art music hard to approach, I highly recommend to give this album a try!

Pianist Risto-Matti Marin has formed a meaningful musical whole out of five works, all recorded for the first time, by four contemporary composers living in Finland. Marin’s interpretation of Hämeeniemi’s Le Trastevere Variazioni, inspired by Frescobaldi, is delicate. His qualities as fearless virtuoso become most apparent in Juho Miettinen’s (b. 1978) Piano Sonata No. 1 (”Sixth Sense, 2009/2014) and Matei Gheorghiu’s (b. 1984) Piano Sonata No. 3 (2016)