Mikkolarsnolintu - Rautavaara: Cantus Arcticus / Piano Concerto 1 / Symphony 3 [CD]

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Einojuhani Rautavaara(b. 1928)Einojuhani Rautavaara is one of the most colourful and diverse figuresin Finnish music. He is an artist of exceptionally broad scope, at onceRomantic and intellectual, mysticist and constructivist. He has gone through agreat many stages in his stylistic development, yet he has combined differentstylistic elements in post-modernist fashion within individual works.Rautavaara began his career under the influence of post-war Neo-Classicism; inthe 1950s, he began to apply twelve-tone procedures and progressed in someworks to quite a modernist idiom. On the other hand, even works written closeto each other in time could differ widely in their approach; for instance, inhis Third Symphony, written in the middle of his twelve-tone period, hegave free rein to the luscious romantic emotion that came to dominate his musicfrom the late onwards. Since the late 1970s, he has been creating a synthesisof various stylistic influences. Rautavaara's extensive and versatile output containsseveral operas, seven symphonies, other orchestral works, concertos, chambermusic, piano music and vocal music. Rautavaara has been a major Finnishcomposer since the 1950s, and has been steadily gaining in internationalesteem, especially in the 1990s.Orchestral music is an important genre in Rautavaara's work. Thesymphonies form its core, spanning his career and illustrating his stylisticdevelopment. We should note, though, that Rautavaara's symphonic cycle did nottake on its present form until the 1980s, when the composer revised the firsttwo symphonies and replaced the original Fourth Symphony with Arabescata(1962). From the late 1960s and early 1970s in particular, Rautavaara'sorchestral music has been characterized by an opulent sonority and grandromantic gestures. His expressive palette extends from lyrical soaring melodiesto incisive rhythms and massive cascades of sound. The various solo concertoscombine these features with a soloistic and instrumental dimension. Rautavaarahas remarked that his concertos are 'a drama, a conflict between theindividual and the collective'.Kimmo KorhonenCantus Arcticus, Concerto for birds and orchestra (1972)The Cantus Arcticus was commissioned by the 'Arctic' Universityof Oulu for its degree ceremony. Instead of the conventional festive cantatafor choir and orchestra, I wrote a 'concerto for birds and orchestra'. The birdsounds were taped in the Arctic Circle and the marshlands of Liminka. The firstmovement, Suo ('The Marsh'), opens with two solo flutes. They aregradually joined by other wind instruments and the sounds of bog birds inspring. Finally, the strings enter with abroad melody that might be interpreted as the voiceand mood of a person walking in the wilds. In Melankolia, the featuredbird is the shore lark; its twitter has been brought down by two octaves tomake it a 'ghost bird'. Joutsenet muuttavat ('Swans migrating') is analeatory texture with four independent instrumental groups. The textureconstantly

Cantus Arcticus, Op. 61 (Concerto for Birds and Orchestra): Suo (The Marsh)

Cantus Arcticus, Op. 61 (Concerto for Birds and Orchestra): Melankolia (Melancholy)

Cantus Arcticus, Op. 61 (Concerto for Birds and Orchestra): Joutsenet muuttavat (Swans Migrating)

Piano Concerto No. 1, Op. 45.: Con grandezza

Piano Concerto No. 1, Op. 45.: Andante (ma rubato)

Piano Concerto No. 1, Op. 45.: Molto vivace

Symphony No. 3, Op. 20.: Langsam, breit, ruhig

Symphony No. 3, Op. 20.: Langsam, doch nicht schleppend

Symphony No. 3, Op. 20.: Sehr schnell

Symphony No. 3, Op. 20.: Bewegt