Aarre Merikanto - Piano Concertos Nos. 2 & 3; etc. (Matti Raekallio; Tuomas Ollila-Hannikainen)

Information

Composer: Aarre Merikanto

• (01) Piano Concerto No. 2
• (04) Piano Concerto No. 3
• (07) Two Studies for Small Orchestra
• (09) Two Pieces for Orchestra

Matti Raekallio, piano

Tampere Philharmonic Orchestra

Tuomas Ollila-Hannikainen, conductor

Date: 1998

Label: Ondine

https://www.ondine.net/index.php?lid=en&cid=2.2&oid=2443

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Review

While it is undeniably true that the principal legacy of Aarre Merikanto (1893-1958) lies in his most pioneering music, dating roughly from the period 1918-31, his later, more accessible, style yielded works with much to offer. The Second and Third Piano Concertos (from 1937-8 and 1955 respectively; No. 1 was written prior to the First World War) are typical of his later output – contrapuntally inventive and impressionistic in scoring. Both have an engaging Prokofievan brio in the brisk outer movements and a Rachmaninovesque romanticism in the lyrical central adagios. Yet Merikanto never entirely forsook his adventurous harmonic writing, and especially in the Second the net result – allied to considerable formal lassitude – is to my ears suggestive of (of all people) Villa-Lobos. Granted it is with a Nordic not a Brazilian accent, but I am thinking here of works such as Momoprecoce and Bachiana No. 3 as much as the piano concertos; those who know both will hear what I mean.

Matti Raekallio is a pianist of considerable technical ability and musical sensibility. He has the measure of both concertos, and the Second in particular could well become popular as an alternative to Prokofiev’s Third or the Paganini Rhapsody. The purely orchestral Two Studies and Two Pieces (1941), though much slighter affairs, are by no means insignificant trifles. Tuomas Ollila secures more than competent performances from the Tampere orchestra, matched by excellent sound. A real delight.

-- Gramophone

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Aarre Merikanto (29 June 1893 – 28 September 1958) was a Finnish composer, the son of famous romantic composer Oskar Merikanto. He studied music in Helsinki 1911, Leipzig 1912–1914 and Moscow 1916–1917. Merikanto is considered a key figure in early Finnish modernism and several of his works, most notably the opera Juha, have obtained posthumous attention. As professor of composition in the Sibelius Academy (1951–1958) Merikanto taught several Finnish composers of the next generation, including Einojuhani Rautavaara, Usko Meriläinen, Aulis Sallinen and Paavo Heininen.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aarre_Merikanto

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Matti Raekallio (born 14 October 1954 in Helsinki) is a Finnish pianist. He taught at the Juilliard and has recorded about 20 CDs.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matti_Raekallio

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Tuomas Hannikainen, born Tuomas Ollila in 1965, is the grandson of the famous conductor Tauno Hannikainen. He later changed his name to Hannikainen to honor the name of his mother’s family. He studied conducting at the Sibelius Academy with Jorma Panula, in St. Petersburg with Ilya Musin, and also attended Tanglewood, USA. Ollila-Hannikainen was Chief Conductor and Music Director of the Tampere Philharmonic Orchestra (1994-98), Artistic Director of the Joroinen Festival in Finland, Joint Chief Conductor of the Ostrobothnian Chamber Orchestra and the the Tapiola Sinfonietta, among others.

https://www.bluoceanarts.com/tuomas-hannikainen

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