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28 of 28 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
The most accessible postmodern music I've ever heard!, June 25, 2000
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
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18 of 18 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Unbelievable music...unbelievable performances, November 24, 2000
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!
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11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Romantic landscapes, November 19, 2001
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
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~ Einojuhani Rautavaara
~ Einojuhani Rautavaara
~ Einojuhani Rautavaara
~ Per Norgard
by Einojuhani Rautavaara 
