Einojuhani Rautavaara (b. 1928) has often said, modifying a well-known quote: “A young composer who is not a Modernist has no heart; an old composer who is a Modernist has no head.” He has practiced what he preaches: his extensive output traces a beautiful arc from the combative experimentalism of youth to the serene wisdom of old age.
Rautavaara’s earliest works, dating from the late 1940s and early 1950s, are couched in Neo-Classicism, the then mainstream style in Finnish concert music. In the 1950s, his idiom began to acquire a sharper edge with his transition to a more Modernist style, including the adoption of twelve-tone technique. One of the first manifestations of this in his output was the orchestral work Modificata (1957). Moving on from dodecaphony and serialism, he sought a different approach in the 1960s and eventually ended up with a synthetic style that could be described as Neo-Romantic, the idiom of his late works. His percussion concerto Incantations (2008) and second cello concerto Towards the Horizon (2009) are fine examples of this period.
Tracklist
Please note that the below previews are loaded as 44.1 kHz / 16 bit.Total time: 00:00:58
Additional information
| Label | |
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| SKU | 813543021308 |
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| Digital Converters | dCS905 A/D and the dCS Vivaldi Clock |
| Editing Software | Pyramix, Merging Technologies |
| Mastering Engineer | Rene Laflamme, DXD Master to DSD Transfer |
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| Recording Software | Pyramix, Merging Technologies |
| Recording Type & Bit Rate | DXD |
| Release Date | April 22, 2016 |
Press reviews
International Record Review
John Storgards and the Helsinki Philharmonic lay down a basic sound of Axminster luxury throughout the album.
BBC Music Magazine
A late and lush harvest of works by octogenarian Einojuhani Rautavaara continues apace. Here we have eagerly awaited documentation of his two latest neo-Romantic concertos, in beautifully recorded and definitive performances by the soloists who are their dedicatees.
The 2008 Percussion Concerto, entitled Incantations, was both inspired by and written in collaboration with Colin Currie. It’s one of Rautavaara’s most immediate and colourful concertos, framed by a majestic statement of purpose. Its finale is a dizzying dance, whose improvised cadenza seems to point to the soloist as much as the composer as the shaman of the piece.
The Cello Concerto No. 2 moves inexorably, as its title suggests, Towards the Horizon. Truls Mørk’s free and graceful flights of endlessly varying and regenerating melody come after a powerful pentatonic opening theme, almost Sibelian in strength. The cello’s voice, both dreamlike and impassioned, is accompanied in its flight by avian woodwind, buffeted here and there by storm clouds of timpani.
In between the two concertos, Rautavaara’s revised version of his 1957 12-tone work, the three-movement suite Modificata, forms a well-chosen and sympathetic companion piece.
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