New Nordic Pocket Concertos, violinsolist Niklas Walentin

Naxos 2026

Gerstrøm • Järventausta • Kolstad • Rasmussen • Ruders • Tarrodi • Vaka

Pocket-sized Violin Concertos

Recorded on this album is brand new music created especially for me and the Danish Chamber Players. Seven renowned composers from seven Nordic countries reinterpret the Romantic violin concerto into a condensed chamber music format.

Veronique Vaka from Iceland, Sunleif Rasmussen from the Faroe Islands, Andrea Tarrodi from Sweden, Aksel Kolstad from Norway, Arnannguaq Gerstrøm from Greenland, Joel Järventausta from Finland and Poul Ruders from Denmark have worked with this new miniature concerto format in very different ways, expanding the framework of what chamber music and the violin concerto combined can be.

The internationally renowned Danish composer Poul Ruders initially came up with the name ‘pocket concerto’ when dedicating his concerto to me. The Covid-19 pandemic led the Danish Chamber Players and I on to this new, intimate concerto form that explores how the violin concerto, traditionally played by a large symphony orchestra, could be interpreted anew as a genre based on the many limitations and restrictions the pandemic brought along. Therefore, many of the works were commissioned and premiered in close collaboration between myself and the Danish Chamber Players, recorded here for the first time.

These are short concertos that have proven to be a success when performed live. Several of the concertos have nature themes: Vaka’s work is about glaciers, Gerstrøm’s is about creaking ice, and Tarrodi’s is a new Nordic interpretation of the four seasons. In some pieces, local folk music of the individual country can be heard in the tonal language and the soundscape of the instruments. The concertos have very different structures; Ruder’s and Rasmussen’s are in three movements. Kolstad’s, Vaka’s and Gerstrøm’s are written as long one-movement pieces, Tarrodi’s is in four parts, one for each season, and Järventausta’s are six short, reflective movements.

Each work is recorded in a circle, which is intended to give the listener a cinematic feeling like entering a Nordic landscape of sounds.

Niklas Walentin