Customer Reviews

Rautavaara: Cantus Articus; Piano Concerto; Symphony No. 3

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This album has been revelatory to me, and I came by its existence quite by accident. Had I relied on my "usual sources" - music critics and reviewers in the trade press - I would surely still be without it. It came highly recommended by friends at a music chat room (the Classical Music Forum at the N. Y. Times website), and I pass this recommendation on to all browsers who happen across this review.

Einojuhani Rautavaara may well turn out to be a, if not the most, significant composer in the last quarter century. Hand-picked by Jean Sibelius to be his successor, Rautavaara came to the U.S. to study at Julliard and to rub elbows with the likes of Copland, Persichetti and others. He then went on to study at the Darmstadt School, all the while building an early repertoire. If the thought of the Darmstadt School, and its preoccupation with serialism, sounds offputting, permit me to put your mind at ease.

The three pieces on this album represent Rautavaara at perhaps early mid-career, covering the period from about 1960 to 1972. (He is still actively - and happily - composing, having recently attended the premiere of his 8th Symphony in Philadelphia.)

Cantus Arcticus ("Concerto for Birds and Orchestra") is by far his best-known work, and receives an excellent performance here. In performance notes, he wrote "Think of autumn and Tchaikovsky." The result is nonetheless strikingly different. The birds, all species whose habitat is the Arctic region of Finland, are compelling factored in as musicians in their own right, with the woodwinds frequently imitating them. This is the most Sibelius-like of the three pieces on the album, and in fact is quite different than the bird music of Messiaen, or the work of Hovhaness that includes whale sounds. I found it to be immediately accessible and moving, more in the vein of Paul Winter's works that successfully integrate such fauna sounds, in its direct, simple and noble appeal. But I think that there is a much better performance of this piece to be found on BIS CD-1098, with Osmo Vänska leading the Lahti Symphony Orchestra and utilizing the composer's revised tape recording of the birds, which is significantly more effective than the one on this recording.

The Piano Concerto No. 1 is, in a word, dazzling. The first movement, full of grand gestures somewhat reminiscent of the Prokofiev 1st, is full of tone clusters obtained by using both the fist and the forearm. The result is a dizzying "struggle for consonance" that, rather than falling harshly on the ears, is instead thoroughly delightful; the dissonances are delicious, if such a term may be used for tone clusters. The brief final movement seems to pull together Prokofiev, Bernstein's "Age of Anxiety" (on speed) and Messiaen's "Turangalila-Symphonie." If this description (which is a personal "read" of mine) suggests eclecticism, it should be said that the result is uniquely Rautavaara. And the pianist, Laura Mikkola, provides a stunningly virtuosic performance.

The Symphony No. 3 (which Rautavaara notes is the synthesis of the romanticism of his 1st Symphony and the serialism of his 2nd Symphony) unabashedly and unapologetically looks back at Bruckner (complete even to the incorporation of 4 Wagner tubas in the scoring). The reference to Bruckner's "Romantic Symphony" is clear, beginning with the string tremolos and massed brasses in the first movement. That the music is built entirely on tone rows might well go unnoticed by the listener; the craft that Rautavaara has at his fingertips is quite remarkable and the result is anything but "serial" in the usual sense of the term. The second movement brings Howard Hanson's own Romantic Symphony to mind. Had Hanson lived a decade or so longer, it would have been interesting to hear how he might have grappled with tone rows; perhaps he might well have ended up writing in a similar idiom. The third movement recalls Nielsen as much as anyone. The final movement brings us back once again to Bruckner, and, latterly, Hanson: Just before a hushed - and totally satisfying - close, the massed brass once again traverse a rather astounding peroration of modulations that remind us that Bruckner had trod this path as a groundbreaker a century earlier, and that Hanson as well had done similar boldly chromatic things at the close of his own Romantic Symphony. If all of this comes across as little more than a pastiche, let me summarize the work in this way: It is a big, bold and totally accessible dodecaphonic Romantic Symphony. Seemingly an oxymoronic statement. But that, I am now finding, is part of the magic of Rautavaara.

This budget Naxos album is a perfect starting point for exploring Rautavaara's captivating and often exhilarating music. It has led me to explore his music much more thoroughly, and I hope that it does for you as well.

Bob Zeidler

I had the good fortune to see "Cantus Articus" performed live last year. I had never heard Rautavaara's music, but was excited by the prospect of something so far outside of the standard repotoire being performed that I had to go see it. I decided not to check the piece out in advance, but to instead go and just see what happened. I was blown away!

Rautavaara's ability to meld sounds of symphony and nature into one is uncanny. The taped bird calls sound quite natural in the symphonic context that Rautavaara has chosen. I was naturally quite afraid that it was going to be some new age drivel, but it was far from that. It is a brilliant neo-romantic work. It is a shame that most orchestras are too conservative and not willing to try something like this which is both melodic and contemporary (the two can co-exist.)

Having only heard "Cantus Articus" I wasn't sure what to expect when I heard the other two pieces on this disc but once again, I was pleased.

The piano concerto starts off with a dissonant chord and is quite intimidating sounding, but there remains a sense of grandeur throughout. The piece is quite melancholy at times, but there is a sense of longing for something greater that penetrates the work as well. The frenzied third movement with its choppy rhythms is a welcome suprise. The piece ends with crashing horns in fit of unresolved drama, but it works. This work definately needs to be performed more (I've never heard of anyone performing it.)

The 3rd symphony is a bit of an anomaly. It touches on several different techinques (serialism & romantic techniques) yet it maintains a solid nature. The different techniques aren't out of line though, like one would think they would be. He manages to make "tonal serialism." As bizarre as that sounds its true. Its quite unlike anything I've ever heard.

This disc is just top-notch in every way. You can't beat the price. The performance is great, the pieces are superb, and the sound is fantastic. Not only that, but you get a symphony, a concerto and a more modern structured work all on the same disc, so it also serves as a great introduction to the composer.

HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!

I must add a note of caution to the otherwise rave reviews this CD has received. As a cheap introduction to a great composer in his prime (his later works have become formulaic), the CD has something to recommend it, but I would strongly urge you to shell out more money for a far more gripping and well recorded performance with Ralf Gothoni and Max Pommer on Ondine. These pieces are so great you really owe it to yourself to have the best recording available.

The recorded sound on this Naxos is great for scuba divers: muffled, underwater-sounding. Not good for a concerto for birds (other than cormorants). The pianism is OK, but without the drama of Gothoni. The orchestra sounds underrehearsed.

There are two Ondine versions--get the second entitled "The Essential Rautavaara," which includes the "Cantus Arcticus."

I bought this CD after a tip from a musician friend of mine who had the opportunity to meet the composer in person. Apparently he made an enormous impression physically (tall and broad I would imagine) on my friend. And for me he made an ever greater impression musically!

I bought it primarily for the "Cantus Arcticus", a fascinating piece of music; but my amazement fell onto the two following works - the Piano Concerto and the Symphony No. 3. Both are to me - as previous listeners have also written - romantic. Broadly executed romantic dreams. Direct, vivacious, sensitive and painfully beautiful. I unfortunately have no knowledge of musical theory or composition and only rudimentary knowledge of music history and I believe that fact hinders me in the search for "new" musical experiences, as I think that myself and many others are intimidated by that rather broad description of "modernity" in music.

I am working on breaking that trend though - and Naxos is here to help me with their almost obscenely cheap recordings. You can afford to take chances and discover a new favourite! Like Rautavaara.

I must apologize for not sticking to the review of this record but transgressing rather gravely into other things. I shall say one more thing on the three musical pieces on this recording; have you ever seen the painting "wanderer across the sea of mist" by C.D. Friedrich? Find it; this recording is the soundtrack for that painting

If you have just discovered -- or are about to discover -- the music of Finland's Einojuhani Rautavarra (one of today's better living symphonists) this is the CD you should start with to get an idea of what you're getting into.

This disk contains Rautavarra's most famous composition -- Cantus Arcticus (Concerto for Birds & Orchestra), for orchestra & taped bird songs Op. 61 -- A "concerto" in name only that is supposed to evoke the spirit of the Antarctic and other places through its bird sounds. The performance on this disk by the Royal Scottish National Orchestra conducted by Hannu Lintu is not as subtle as it could be and is, therefore, not the best rendition of this music. Still, it is a worthy introduction to the composer's most accessible and important piece.

The remaining items on the disk -- Piano Concerto No.1 performed by pianist Laura Mikkola and the Brucknerian Symphony No.3, Op. 20 are more in keeping with Rautavarra's mature minimalist style.

His best composition aside from Arctus Canticus is probably the atmospheric Symphony No. 7 subtitled "Angel of Light". You can acquire this symphony on another inexpensive Naxos CD or on a higher priced BIS CD where it is grouped with Cantus Arcticus and the Flute Concerto. Either will give satisfaction.

Until then, spend some time with this recording and begin to come to grips with Finland's most important composer since Sibelius. You will find a good measure of Sibelius' Finnish desolation in Rautavarra's music, as well as some post-atonal late 20th century scoring. Rautavarra is clearly an acquired, not natural, taste and the beginnings of acquiring it are on this CD.

Cantus Articus was the work that got me into Rautavaara's music - the second movement, Melankolia, is for me one of the most beautiful pieces of classical music produced in the past 50 years. In this unusual work, tape recordings of arctic bird song are superbly mixed in with orchestral playing. The effect can be simply magical and one can picture oneself by a lake in Northern Finland, watching the swans fly and the midges dance on an endless summer evening. This was the piece with which Rautavaara abandoned his adherence to the rigid forms of post-war atonalism and, to my mind at least, his masterpiece.

The Piano Concerto is a more angular, atonal, work with lots of clashing harmonies. However it also has a real energy and verve with some ravishing interplay between the strings and the piano, especially in the middle movement.

Finally there's the 3rd symphony, the first two movements of which are full of gorgeous broad chords on string and brass, very reminiscent of Sibelius. In the latter movements the pace picks up as the sympony heads towards a rousing finish.

The RNSO, who seem to be Naxos' specialist Rautavaara orchestra, give a good account of all of this. With this CD at such a low price there's no better introduction to this composer.

A long time ago, encouraged by positive reviews, I purchased Rautavaara's 7th Symphony. While I found it very inspired in parts, I thought it dissapointing on the whole, and I wrote the composer off for several years. Fortunately the budget label Naxos makes taking a risk quite pain-free. This is simply the best classical recording I've heard in a long, long time! The Cantus Arcticus integrates a variety of pre-recorded bird calls into the orchestral framework. At the end, both birds and orchestral burst forth in a momentus celebration. In text, it may sound like the worst possible new-agey, "mystical" silliness, but it is incredbily beautiful and moving. The Concerto is easily one of the best from the latter half of the 20th century; both overtly "modern" yet familiarily Romantic. While the symphony is a marvelous homage to Bruckner, is is superb in its own right. This is one of the few collections of "new" music that warrants repeat listenings and has true enduring power. I can't recommend this enough!

One of the many virtues of the budget Naxos lablel is the variety of music offered to the adventurous or simply curious listener. The depth and range of its catalog is astonishing. I thought I had been spending too much time listening to composers and music that I already knew. I needed to hear something different. I decided to try this CD of works by the contemporary Finnish composer, Einojuhani Rautavaara (b.1928) who, I knew vaguely, had been influenced greatly by Sibelius and had been compared to the American composer, Alan Hovahness. I also knew that the late Bob Zeidler thought highly of Rautavaara and had reviewed his work, including the CD I am discussing here.

This CD is an excellent introduction to the work of this composer and includes three selections in varied musical styles. It is also on "Gramophone's" recommended list. The disk includes the composer's symphony no. 3, piano concerto no. 1 and his "Cantus Arcticus" (Concerto for Birds and Orchestra) which features a taping of birds from the Artic Circle and the Far North.

The work that impressed me most, upon my initial hearings, was the three-movement piano concerto no. 1 opus 45 which Rautavaara composed in 1969 and which he has played as a soloist on several occasions. It is performed here by a young Finnish pianist, Laura Mikkola, whom I also hadn't heard before, and the Royal scottish National Orchestra conducted by Hannu Lintu.

The work opens with a big piano solo, with large, dissonant chords over a running bass. The orchestra enters at last in a loud passage embellishing the piano part. Throughout this movement, as in much of the Rautavaara on this CD, there is great use of contrast between bold, flamboyant writing and quieter, meditative passages. The second movement also opens with a piano solo, this time in a subdued choral passage interspersed with rippling runs. The movement works up to a climax with clanging cymbols, dies down, and ends with alternating big chords and light rippling piano figures. The brief, quickly-paced third movement follows the second without pause. It begins with sudden downward arpeggios in the piano, works to a moment of great intensity, and ends with the sound of high, shrill winds. It is a stunning concerto.

Rautavaara's symphony no. 3 op. 20 reminds me in its goals (not in its sound) of the work of George Rochberg in that both composers take modernist, serial writing and infuse them with music of great romantic intensity. There are again great stylistic contrasts within the piece with surging, intense climaxes alternating with moments of lyricism. Sibelius, in modern musical vocabulary, is much in evidence. The work opens with a flute solo, and, in the remainder of the lengthy first movement, the winds and strings gradually join in. There is a dramatic climax followed by a full stop, near the end of the movement and a taut, quiet conclusion. The second movement is also in slow tempo and opens with a chirping flute followed by a bassoon solo. The pattern again leads to a dramatic climax and a quiet close. The third scherzo-like movement opens with a sharp, angular phrase and alternates dramatic rhythmic passages with quieter sections. Again, the music comes to a big full stop near the end before an abrupt close. The finale opens with a brass fanfare, which the composer himself analogizes to Bruckner, works to a climax featuring the brass and finally closes quietly on a dirge-like note. This work grew on me with several hearings.

Probably Rautavaara's best-known work is the "Cantus Arcticus" opus 61. The composer travelled to the remote reaches of Finland to record a tape of Arctic birds and to integrate their songs in his music. The music is lovely and austure, to my hearing, and the birds complement it beautifully. The three-movement work is programatic in character. The first movement titled "The Marsh" opens with solo flute gradually followed by the bird tape. In general the orchestral passages in this work feature long, repetitive lines ornamented by the birds. The first movement ultimately leads to a long, melancholy theme in the cello repeated in the upper strings to the twitterings of the birds. The second movement, "Melancholy" opens with muted strings to the accompaniment of the birds The melody is repeated and intensified and then gradually fades away. The third movement, "Swan Migrating" opens with the birds followed by a quiet figure in the winds. It leads to a sinuous, sensual lengthy, and repeated melody in the strings which captures the spirit of the moving birds and then quietly fades away.

This is a lovely CD, and it encouraged me to learn more of this composer. Listeners wanting to expand their musical knowledge of contemporary works will enjoy this disk.

It would be easy for some people to believe that Scandanavia is now the musical center of the world. So many composers of quality are coming into the comercial mainstream and for good reasons. Einouhani Rautavaara's recent fame in the classical music world is a result of a combination of chance and a few performers who truly believe in his compositional mastery. I certainly do. Rautavaara's 1st Piano Concerto is the most arrestingly attractive work included on this disk. In the liner notes, the composer mentions that he was writing so-called "post-modern" music "before the term was ever invented". In the concerto, the composer borrows from some 20th century techniques, but never once surrenders to cliche. This priciple seems to me a recurring idealism in music by Finnish composers. The only thing that Rautavaara takes from Sibelius (R. had been recognized by Sibelius and knew him in his lifetime) is what Otto Klemperer called "pure music"; that is...music of complete introspection and originality. It's difficult to describe Rautavaara without actually hearing the music. One could generalize that his use of "grand" gestures and sonorities, an unabashed Romantic aesthetic, coupled with occasional stinging dissonances for added spice, make a good description of his style. The 3rd Symphony, written in 1959-60, shows an influence of Bruckner. This might be indirect since Sibelius was greatly inspired by Bruckner in his earlier life. I think that Bruckner's sound ("grandness" of sonority) has been carried down two generations in the form of echoes, ghosts, or hints. All things considered, the Cantus Arcticus proves that Rautavaara truly was his own individual voice. There are some obvious Romantic gestures here, but it never loses my attention. Also, I find the final movement of the "Concerto for Birds" (entitled "Swans Migrating") some of the most moving music I've I've ever experienced.

I bought this, like many other people, for the cantus arcticus which I heard earlier on the radio. This is a wonderful work, which uses recorded bird sounds juxtaposed with orchestra for a wonderful, novel effect. It is in 3 movements, the first one, Suo (the marsh) opens with two flutes and gradually builds in intensity to an EXTATIC climax, the second is rather mournful and features the shore-lark, the third, Swans Migrating, is again a very moving work.
An important feature of this work is that all three movements are based around a harmonised "ground bass", like a passacaglia, which is unusual, but this is very masterfully concealed by orchestral and textural variety.

The piano concerto is another work, epic in atmosphere, if not in length. It is almost expressionist in style, the climaxes (and the impassioned piano intro) heightened by tone clusters, creating an atmosphere of grinding, chaotic despair.
In contrast, the soft sections portray images of winged flight, and are full of impressionist harmonies, and much polytonality (very common in Rautavaara!), delicate piano arpeggios and a gossamer of orchestral colour to create a myserious, etherial feeling. Also, like Cantus Arcticus, a harmonised passacaglia passage appears in the 1st mvt, and reappears in the 3rd.
It is a work of many moods - and I must add that the piano part contains 2 traits that are almost platitudes of Rautavaara's piano writing - firstly extensive, especially polytonal, arpeggio writing for long periods, and secondly (in the 3rd mvt) a passage in asymmetrical time, 3+2+3, shared between the hands (just like the opening to Rautavaara's Fire Sermon sonata).
Laura Mikkola is a wonderful pianist and her performance is stunning, but her interpretation can be a little strange at times - eg. in the 3rd movement, where an asymmetrical time signature appears 3+2+3, she plays in rather even time instead, which is oddly at variance with the orchestra. Nevertheless the performance is very stirring and effective.
The symphony is also a very interesting work - displaying some of the same traits as the others, also of many moods - from the hesitant, almost ominous opening to the "death-ride" of the scherzo.
This is a great introduction to the music of Rautavaara, and has features typical of his writing - including passacaglia-like sections, polytonality etc. I find the music genuinely beautiful without being superficial (like much quasi-new-age writing that appears in some scores) and I recommend this CD to anyone who is interested.