Rautavaara: Symphony No. 6 - Vincentiana; Cello Concerto, Op. 41

Marko Ylönen (Performer), Einojuhani Rautavaara (Composer), Max Pommer (Conductor), Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra (Orchestra) | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Performer: Marko Ylönen
• Orchestra: Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra
• Conductor: Max Pommer
• Composer: Einojuhani Rautavaara
• Audio CD (June 28, 1994)
• SPARS Code: DDD
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Ondine
• ASIN: B00000377W
• Also Available in: MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #329,689 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A new world popular cello concerto? It's about time., July 29, 2004

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Crt Sojar Voglar "Crt" (Ljubljana, Slovenia) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Rautavaara: Symphony No. 6 - Vincentiana; Cello Concerto, Op. 41 (Audio CD)

The Symphony No. 6 is briliant but the Cello concerto! This is the most beautiful cello concerto written in the last 40 years! Even if it is called 'neo-romantic' and seems in many ways surprisingly traditional. But the quality of music should never be defined by its style, rather by the composer's own abilities! And Rautavaara has indeed many of them!
The first movement is a masterful intrada with a lot of energy and is simple to remember and follow for its repetitive motifs and clear sonata structure. The second movement gives you shivers and also shows the composer's ability to combine contrasting chords on the same tonal centre, which is magical to listen. And the light and relaxed third movement concludes the concerto so perfectly! I sincerely hope the cellists will discover the fact that there are more beautiful cello concertos in the world besides from Dvoøak, Haydn and Elgar! Rautavaara's example is perfect. And it's written in present time.
The Sixth Symphony is more suite-like composition and therefore lacks the organism in development that symphony would require. All four movements stand well on their own: I find the second movement most interesting. The notable instrument is sythesizer, whose SF sounds make the atmosphere more unusual. But it can't be matched with the composer's Third, Fifth or Seventh symphony.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Remarkable Recording, August 3, 2009

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Karl W. Nehring (Ostrander, OH USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Rautavaara: Symphony No. 6 - Vincentiana; Cello Concerto, Op. 41 (Audio CD)

Both pieces on htis CD are capable of making a lasting impression on the listener with their energy and power of expression, much like the art of van Gogh, who served as the inspiration for the opera Vincent from which Rautavaara derived his 6th Symphony. As one might expect of music based on the life and works of this artist, the Vincentiana Symphony is colorful, expressive, and in some passages, tempestuous and tormented. Not only does Rautavaara employ the standard forces of the orchestra in usual and unusual ways, but he also makes effective use of a synthesizer at various points in the score, with particularly effective results in the third movement ("Saint-Rémy"), where the synthesizer is used to generate other-worldly sounds that sound eerily appropriate.

Rautavaara's Cello Concerto (1968) is much more conventional in its scoring and sonority, but is nonetheless dramatic and expressive, with the cello soloist given ample opportunity to make the instrument really sing. Interestingly enough, the liner notes for this CD were written by Kalevi Aho (b. 1949), a student of Rautavaara whose 8th and 9th symphonies are reviewed in these pages above.

The recording quality is excellent, with striking clarity and wide dynamics. The cello seems larger than life in the Concerto, but such is true of nearly all concerto recordings and of many concerto performances in the concert hall, to be truly honest, although perhaps paradoxical--or at least contrary.