This third instalment of the recent symphonic output of Fridrich Bruk (born in Ukraine in 1937 but a Finnish resident since 1974) brings two works of astonishing vitality for a composer in his eighties. Both of them have social undercurrents: Symphony no.22 is driven by ecological concerns about the pollution of the world’s oceans, and no.23 takes its material from folk-melodies of the Ingrians, a vanishing ethnic group on the Finnish-Russian border. The orchestral writing in both pieces is passionate and wildly inventive, a kaleidoscope of colour and counterpoint, sitting somewhere between Villa-Lobos and Pettersson in its profligate abundance.

“The performances, by the Liepāja Symphony Orchestra in Symphonies 19 and 21 and the Lithuanian State Symphony Orchestra in Symphony 20 all under the direction of Māris Kupčs, seem excellent to me and the sound is very good.” – Fanfare, Nov/Dec 2020 (TOCC0543: Vol.2)

“The playing and recording are again first class. The conductor Latvian Māris Kupčs displays an instinctive grasp of Bruk’s style and these readings exude tact and respect, qualities which quasi-programmatic music such as this absolutely demand. Fridrich Bruk is by now 82 years old; such is the quality of these symphonies that one earnestly hopes these fine accounts will help to raise his profile beyond his homeland(s). This is shaping up to be another life-enhancing sequence from Toccata.” – MusicWeb International, June 2020 (TOCC0455: Vol.1)