Winter Wind-down

The BBC Concert Orchestra’s winter mix-tape features the Norwegian violinist Mari Samuelsen and a liner list of Bach, Pärt and Max Richter

It opens with Cantus Arcticus for orchestra & taped bird song by Finnish composer Einojuhani Rautavaara, which incorporates tapes of birds recorded near the Arctic Circle and in northern Finland.

There’s also music from Estonia, Iceland and Latvia: Arvo Pärt’s celestial Fratres, Anna Thorvaldsdottir’s magnetic Aeriality and Peteris Vasks’ meditative Lonely Angel.

Max Richter subjects Vivaldi to an avant-garde reimagining in the alien soundscape of Winter from Vivaldi's Four Seasons Recomposed.

Violinist Mari Samuelsen’s first album, released in 2019, explores the human longing to escape into nature.