To celebrate the 50th birthday of the Finnish cellist Anssi Karttunen in 2010, his wife, Muriel von Braun, and colleague and countrywoman Kaija Saariaho wrote to a number of composers with whose music Karttunen had been working. They asked each composer to write a variation on the Chiacona per basso solo by the Italian composer Giuseppe Colombi (1635–94) – perhaps the earliest work in the history of the cello.

The composers were not told who else was involved in the project, and Karttunen agreed to perform the music before he had seen it – hence the title, Mystery Variations. These 30 variations thus link the very beginning of the cello repertoire with music by some of the most distinguished composers of the present day.

With their distant echo of Beethoven’s 32 ‘Diabelli’ Variations, the Mystery Variations provide a showcase for the extraordinary resourcefulness of contemporary cello technique.

Anssi Karttunen is one of the most important of contemporary cellists, working closely with his composer colleagues, especially his compatriots Magnus Lindberg and Kaija Saariaho, both of whom have written extensively for him. Toccata Classics recently published his reconstruction of the original string-quintet version of Brahms’ Op.34 Piano Quintet, in a fiery recording by Karttunen himself (TOCC0066), playing in his Zebra Trio and joined by a number of outstanding musician friends.

Composers:
Edmund Campion, Denis Cohen, Giuseppe Colombi, Gualtiero Dazzi, Tan Dun, Pascal Dusapin, Ivan Fedele, Luca Francesconi, Vinko Globokar, Kimmo Hakola, Paavo Heininen, Anders Hillborg, Betsy Jolas, Jouni Kaipainen, Fred Lerdahl, Magnus Lindberg, Martin Matalon, Colin Matthews, Marc Neikrug, Pablo Ortiz, Veli-Matti Puumala, Roger Reynolds, Kaija Saariaho, Esa-Pekka Salonen, Miroslav Srnka, Steven Stucky, Jukka Tiensuu, Tapio Tuomela, Rolf Wallin, Ryan Wigglesworth, Joji Yuasa