Einojuhani Rautavaara - Rubáiyát; Balada; Canto V; Four Songs from Rasputin (Gerald Finley; Mika Pohjonen; John Storgårds)

Information

Composer: Einojuhani Rautavaara

• (01-09) Rubáiyát, song cycle for baritone and orchestra
• (10) Into the Heart of Light (Canto V), for string orchestra
• (11) Balada, for tenor, mixed choir and orchestra
• (12-15) Four Songs from the Opera Rasputin, for mixed choir and orchestra

Gerald Finley, baritone (1-9)
Mika Pohjonen, tenor (11)
Helsinki Music Centre Choir (11-15)
Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra
John Storgårds, conductor

Date: 2016
Label: Ondine
https://www.ondine.net/index.php?lid=en&cid=2.2&oid=5746

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Review

PERFORMANCE: **** / SOUND: *****

It’s probably no accident that the Finn Einojuhani Rautavaara is both one of the most significant living composers, and one of the most accessible. From early serialism, exploring wide-ranging styles, he evolved a neo-Romantic idiom, often mystically inspired. His music is sometimes coolly austere, at others rich, lyrical and dramatic, but no more ‘difficult’ than JanáΩek or Szymanowski. Here John Storgårds and the Helsinki Philharmonic, in fine form, record a selection of recent, largely vocal works.

Rautavaara’s latest song-cycle Rubaiyat (2015), settings of the Persian poet Omar Khayyam in Edward Fitzgerald’s famous (and very free) English rendition, is definitely in his colourful vein, its surging string figures and pulsing timpani reminiscent of his tone-poem Isle of Bliss. Gerald Finley, expressive as ever, catches the shifting moods of hedonism and world-weary philosophy engagingly, his voice less swamped than in the piano version. A less lush radiance infuses Into the Heart of Light (Canto V: 2006), for strings, and the choral cantata Balada (2014), from his unfinished opera about poet García Lorca.

Outside Finland Rautavaara’s operas have made less impression than his orchestral works; but Rasputin (2003) explores darker forms of mysticism and hedonism to dramatic effect, as this suite of choruses suggests. Opening with the folksy ‘Troika trotting’, it leaps to the ominous revolutionary closing chorus ‘Day of Vengeance’ and the erotic ‘I fear not’. The pounding ‘Shine, Zion, shine!’, as Rasputin’s cultists dance themselves into orgiastic ecstasy, makes a striking conclusion. Altogether, well worth hearing.

-- Michael Scott Rohan, BBC Music Magazine

More reviews:
MusicWeb International  RECORDING OF THE MONTH
https://www.theguardian.com/music/2016/jun/02/rautavaara-rubaiyat-balada-canto-v-four-songs-from-rasputin-cd-review-gooey-post-romanticism
http://www.limelightmagazine.com.au/content/rautavaara-vocal-works-helsinki-philharmonic-orchestra
http://www.operanews.com/Opera_News_Magazine/2016/10/Recordings/RAUTAVAARA__Rub%C3%A1iy%C3%A1t_and_other_works.html
https://www.thewholenote.com/index.php/booksrecords2/booksrecords2-2/26081-rautavaara-rubaiyat-balada-canto-v-four-songs-from-rasputin-gerald-finley-mika-pohjonen-helsinki-music-centre-choir-helsinki-philharmonic-john-storgards
http://www.naxos.com/reviews/reviewslist.asp?catalogueid=ODE1274-2&languageid=EN

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Einojuhani Rautavaara (9 October 1928 – 27 July 2016) was a Finnish composer of classical music. He is among the most notable Finnish composers since Jean Sibelius. Rautavaara wrote a great number of works spanning various styles. These include 8 symphonies, 9 operas and 12 concerti, as well as numerous vocal and chamber works. Having written early works using 12-tone serial techniques, his later music may be described as Neo-romantic and mystical. Almost all of Rautavaara's works have been recorded by Ondine. Some of his major works have also been recorded by Naxos and BIS.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Einojuhani_Rautavaara

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Gerald Finley (born January 30, 1960 in Montreal) is a Canadian baritone opera singer. He received his musical education in St. Matthew's Anglican Church, Ottawa, the University of Ottawa, King's College, Cambridge and the Royal College of Music in London, England. He is particularly renowned for his interpretations of Mozart roles such as Guglielmo, Papageno, Figaro, the Count and Don Giovanni. Finley has been critically praised in both opera and concert. Finley appears on a number of recordings, including several solo albums on the Hyperion label.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gerald_Finley
http://www.geraldfinley.com/

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John Storgårds (born 20 October 1963 in Helsinki) is a Finnish violinist and conductor. Storgårds studied violin with Esther Raitio and Jouko Ignatius, and study conducting with Jorma Panula and Eri Klas at the Sibelius Academy in Helsinki. He was Chief Conductor of the Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra from 2008 to 2015. Storgårds was also Chief Conductor of the Tampere Philharmonic Orchestra from 2006 to 2009. He has made a number of international recordings for Ondine, Sony and BIS Records
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Storg%C3%A5rds
http://www.johnstorgards.com/

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