Finnish composer Lotta Wennäkoski has made a major addition to the flute concerto repertoire with Soie (2009). Its three movements are named after fabrics, and the music both evokes and rubs up against their textures. Voile has the billowing, tumbling flute played with fluttering and note-bending effects, echoed and egged on by the rest of the orchestra. Roughness and weight are less given to being evoked by this instrument, but in Lin Gros (rough linen), Wennäkoski manages it, with flautist Kersten McCall pushing his instrument to the edge; the title movement is a darkly atmospheric finale. The restless orchestral work Hava comes from a similar sound-world. There is also a suite adapted from the score Wennäkoski wrote to be played alongside the tragic 1922 silent film Amor Omnia. Dima Slobodeniouk and the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra are persuasive advocates for a composer with ideas and a distinctive way of voicing them.
