Act. Das war schön. Tides

Martin Grubinger perc Kroumata Percussion Ensemble; Oslo Philharmonic Orchestra / John Axelrod, Jukka-Pekka Saraste, Jaap Van Zweden

Ondine ODE1118-2 (60')

Powerful confirmation of a distinctive voice in Norwegian music

Although Finland has made the running in contemporary music terms, other Nordic countries have produced composers no less significant. Denmark's Anders Nordentoft comes to mind, as does Norway's Rolf Wallin. Fifty last year, Wallin is a figure at home across a range of genres and who also deploys complex procedures in the writing of music with a visceral immediacy. How else to explain Act (2003) - a 10-minute "study" which amply demonstrates the orchestra's potential both as individuals capable of great expressive subtlety and as a collective capable of generating an irresistible momentum.

The larger works emphasise the role of percussion, yet the manner of this emphasis could hardly be more different. Das war schön! (2006) pays tribute to Mozart with a refreshing lack of reverence, drawing on birdsong, freemasonry and parental innuendo in a five-movement work of deft irony and understated virtuosity (would that most percussion concertos evinced much of either). Tides (1998) avoids the anecdotal, integrating its six percussionists into the very fabric of a discourse that unfolds over three large "tides" of musical activity; the orchestra emerging imperceptibly from the "engine room" of this sextet and interlocking with it in an intensifying process of tension and release.

Performances are as committed as this exhilarating music requires, the sound lacks nothing in its impact and the composer's notes are both succinct and informative. Wallin himself is hardly likely to worry over being the next "big thing", but this disc powerfully confirms his stature.

Richard Whitehouse