Aarre Merikanto - Works for Orchestra (Tuomas Ollila-Hannikainen)

Information

Composer: Aarre Merikanto

1. Lemminkäinen, Op. 10
2. Pan, Op. 28
3. Four Compositions for Orchestra: Lento cantabile
4. Four Compositions for Orchestra: Allegro scherzando
5. Four Compositions for Orchestra: Arietta
6. Four Compositions for Orchestra: Moderato pietoso
7. Andante religioso
8. Scherzo

Tampere Philharmonic Orchestra

Tuomas Ollila-Hannikainen, conductor

Date: 1998

Label: Ondine

https://www.ondine.net/index.php?lid=en&cid=2.2&oid=2421

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Review

Aarre Merikanto’s career divided broadly into three phases, those of apprentice, radical and conservative, and there are works from each present on this valuable new issue. Critical hindsight accords (quite rightly) that the brief radical phase, roughly corresponding to the 1920s, was the most valuable, though at the time Merikanto’s modernistic approach – and that of his like-minded contemporaries, Ernest Pingoud and Vaino Raito – was derided. Only one piece here represents this period, the highly accomplished tone-poem, Pan (1924), a wonderful, evocative, yet robust score, possessed of a very Nordic brand of impressionism. The playing of the Tampere orchestra is perhaps not quite as refined as the Finnish Radio Orchestra under Segerstam, but Ollila catches more of the dangerousness of the goat-footed deity.

Lemminkainen (1916), by contrast to Pan, seems immature, and rather parochial. A Sibelian shadow lies heavily across its quarter-hour duration, yet without a trace of the older composer’s own Lemminkainen tone-poems. There is little of the latter’s emotional and psychological depth – or musical range – but instead a prevailing rollicking good humour broken occasionally by quieter, more serious moments. The remaining works all date from the early stages of Merikanto’s post-modern period, when he reverted to a simpler, more accessible idiom. The Four Compositions (1932), which barely exceed Pan in length, nevertheless make a very effective and satisfying set, and whereas the Andante religioso (1933) seems like a piece out of context, the Scherzo (1937) is entirely convincing on its own. Taken together, these five works make a much more positive impression than did the rather uneven Pingoud works (Ondine, 2/98), especially in performances as sympathetic and well-recorded as these. Quietly recommended.

-- 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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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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