Leevi Madetoja - Symphony No. 2; Kullervo; Elegy (John Storgårds)

Information

Composer: Leevi Madetoja

• (01) Kullervo, symphonic poem, Op. 15
• (02) Symphony No. 2, Op. 35
• (06) Elegy, Op. 4/1 (First movement from the Symphonic Suite, Op. 4)

Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra
John Storgårds, conductor

Date: 2013
Label: Ondine
https://www.ondine.net/index.php?lid=en&cid=2.2&oid=4953

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Review

ARTISTIC QUALITY: 10  / SOUND QUALITY: 10

Leevi Madetoja composed his magnificent Second Symphony in 1918, during the time of the Finnish Civil War. The music begins in pastoral tranquility with hints of the struggle to come. The slow second movement features cadenzas for offstage oboe and horn, growing organically in two large waves. Then violence breaks out in the war-like third movement, which also serves as a sort of development for the entire work, before a resigned epilog brings the work to a quiet close. Madetoja was a born symphonist. The very opening of the work features a motive that immediately begins to develop (sound clip), moving from breezy calm in the strings to ominous foreboding in the winds. You can tell in the first thirty seconds that the composer has total control over his material, and where he wants to go with it.

The symphony is roughly contemporaneous with Sibelius’ Fifth, and so reveals that Finnish music had more going on in the first decades of the 20th century than just its most famous composer. Consider also Kullervo, a tone poem lasting about a quarter of an hour, dates from 1913. It packs quite a punch. While not sounding quite as primal as Sibelius’ Kalevala-inspired works, it has plenty of the necessary epic feel, and it rises to a remarkably scored climax in which castanets and tambourine are used in a most unusual, threatening way to create a powerful feeling of frenzy. The Elegy (1909) is exactly what is claims to be: a gently sad, brief movement for string orchestra. It makes a touching encore.

Given their (undeserved) obscurity, both the tone poem and the symphony have enjoyed a small handful of recordings, but none that top this outstanding release. John Storgards is an excellent conductor, and he has the Helsinki Philharmonic maintaining the high standards set by his predecessor, Leif Segerstam. The performances are just about perfect in all respects: totally idiomatic, committed, passionate, and immaculately played. There isn’t a dull second, and he’s exceptionally well recorded. On evidence here the orchestra’s new home, the Helsinki Music Center, is a good place to record, certainly better than the old Finlandia Hall. A great release.

-- David Hurwitz, ClassicsToday

More reviews:
https://www.gramophone.co.uk/review/madetoja-symphony-no-2-op-35
http://www.musicweb-international.com/classrev/2013/May13/Madetoja_Kullervo_ODE12122.htm
https://www.amazon.com/Madetoja-Symphony-2-Leevi/dp/B00A8QBFZK

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Leevi Madetoja (17 February 1887, Oulu – 6 October 1947, Helsinki) was a Finnish composer, music critic, conductor, and teacher. He is generally considered to be among the most significant Finnish composers to emerge after Jean Sibelius, with whom he studied. The core of Madetoja's oeuvre consists of a set of three symphonies, two operas, an Elegia for strings, the suite The Garden of Death for solo piano, and the Japanisme ballet-pantomime Okon Fuoko. Acclaimed during his lifetime, Madetoja is today seldom heard outside the Nordic countries, although his music has in recent decades enjoyed a renaissance.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leevi_Madetoja

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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, including recordings of music by Andrzej Panufnik, John Corigliano, and Per Nørgård.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Storg%C3%A5rds
http://www.johnstorgards.com/

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