Kalevi Aho's Piano Concerto No. 2 is scored for a string orchestra comprising just twenty players. The first performance took place at the concluding concert of the 2003 Mänttä Music Festival, in Vilppula Church on 29th June. The soloist was Antti Siirala and the strings of the Lahti Symphony Orchestra were conducted by Osmo Vänskä. The demanding piano writing is primarily a consequence of Siirala's remarkable command of the ‘Beethovenian-Lisztian-Brahmsian' pianistic tradition. At times the pia...