The new album by Jyväskylä Sinfonia features compositions by Ville Matvejeff and Joel Järventausta

The album features four versatile orchestral works. Ville Matvejeff’s Violin Concerto, premiered at the Helsinki Music Centre in 2011, is now recorded with the original commissioner, violinist Petri Aarnio, as the soloist. The album also includes Matvejeff’s Seaside Rendezvous, originally written at the request of Jukka-Pekka Saraste to celebrate Mozart’s 250th anniversary year.

From Joel Järventausta’s output, the recording features his internationally awarded Ripped Tapestry, which won the French Île de Créations composition competition in 2019. The album’s title piece, Naava, evokes the colors and depth of the Finnish forest.

The recording took place at Hankasalmi Church in October 2023. The album will be released both on CD and digitally, and can be purchased in record stores as well as at Jyväskylä Sinfonia’s concert evenings at Paviljonki.

The Artists Behind the Album

Ville Matvejeff is an internationally renowned conductor, pianist, composer, and Artistic Director of the Savonlinna Opera Festival. His long-standing collaboration with Jyväskylä Sinfonia has produced several acclaimed recordings, and Naava continues this successful series.

Joel Järventausta is among Finland’s most promising and internationally active younger-generation composers. Having spent his childhood in Luxembourg and Germany, he later studied at the University of York and the Royal College of Music in the UK, as well as at the Sibelius Academy through an Erasmus exchange. He is currently pursuing doctoral studies at King’s College London. As a composer, Järventausta can be characterized as a modernist, often drawing inspiration from nature and other art forms in imaginative ways.

Petri Aarnio, First Concertmaster of the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra, is a highly respected chamber musician and teacher who has performed as a soloist and chamber musician worldwide.