Aapo Häkkinen and Helsinki Baroque Orchestra featuring Jani Sunnarborg, Audi Jugendchorakademie and Frank Skog - Crusell: The Last Warrior; Bassoon Concerto; Overture to 'The Little Slave Girl' (2023) [Hi-Res]

This new album by the Helsinki Baroque Orchestra and Aapo Häkkinen together with the Audi Jugendchorakademie and bassoonist Jani Sunnarborg featuring late works by composer Bernhard Henrik Crusell (1775–1838) makes an important addition to the recordings of Nordic Classical period works and of early Finnish music. Highlight of the album is the world première recording of Crusell’s Viking-themed ‘The Last Warrior’ (Den sista kämpen), the composer’s last large-scale composition.

Conductor Robert Kajanus described in 1896 that Crusell was “among the classics in Finnish art music”. Born in Finland in 1775, Crusell was a child prodigy who was sent to Stockholm to receive musical training in his late teens. Crusell would become a famous clarinet virtuoso who toured Berlin, Leipzig and Paris, staying there for six months in 1803, and who would write three virtuosic clarinet concertos which still today belong to the standard repertoire of the instrument alongside Mozart’s famous clarinet concerto.

This album highlights the other, much lesser-known side of Crusell’s compositions written after he ended his career as a touring clarinet virtuoso. This album includes an orchestral overture written by Crusell to his opera, ‘The Little Slave Girl’, his late bassoon concerto performed on period instruments, as well as his ‘The Last Warrior’ for recitation, choir and orchestra, showcasing the composer’s excellent choral writing. Prior to this recording this work has not been heard since its first public performance in 1837, just some months before the composer’s death.

Jani Sunnarborg, bassoon
Audi Jugendchorakademie
Helsinki Baroque Orchestra
Aapo Häkkinen, conductor