Norwegian composer Svein Hundsnes has written a considerable number of works ranging from concertos to pieces for young musicians. His piano music is stylistically wide-ranging and occupies a significant place in his oeuvre. Piano Sonata no.2 exemplifies his practice of working from tiny core motifs as he makes a series of connections between each vivid movement. Syncopated rhythms animate Vinterdanser (‘Winter Dances’) – a sequence of round dances; whereas torches swirling in the air, a cradle song and clouds of illuminated water particles are magically evoked in Nuances de Lumière (‘Shades of Light’). Finnish pianist Laura Mikkola, continues her critically acclaimed discovery, in this second volume of Hundsnes’s piano works.

Laura Mikkola studied at the Sibelius Academy, the Curtis Institute of Music and Indiana University Bloomington with Tapani Valsta, Menahem Pressler, Gary Graffman and Ferenc Rados. Mikkola has won many prizes, including Second Prize and the Public Prize at the 1995 Queen Elisabeth International Piano Competition. She was also awarded First Prize at the 1988 Maurice Ravel Piano Competition. Mikkola has worked as a soloist with several orchestras including the Los Angeles Philharmonic, Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra, Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra, Nagoya Philharmonic Orchestra, Mariinsky Theatre Orchestra, and National Symphony Orchestra (Washington, D.C.), with eminent conductors such as Esa-Pekka Salonen, Leif Segerstam, Valery Gergiev, Vladimir Ashkenazy, Pierre Bartholomée, Mikko Franck, Hannu Lintu and Ahmed El Saedi. Since 2003, she has been the artistic director of the Iitti Music Festival in Finland.

‘Laura Mikkola is brilliant here, working with nuance and clarity and just the right amount of emotion for this beautiful and intense work.’ – American Record Guide (GP800)