Einojuhani Rautavaara (b. 1928) is Finland’s most prominent living composer; he can also be considered (one of) that country’s greatest composers since Sibelius. Yet his music can too often be music which you think you know (and don’t); or which is known only from one or two examples (the Cantus Arcticus, for example); or which is mischaracterized, misunderstood even…the amorphous output of a latter-day Romantic “also ran”! If you think you might (blushingly and/or secretly) find yourself with such an understanding, then this admirable set of four CDs from Ondine will serve as a tonic. If you’re familiar with Rautavaara’s music, you’ll also be glad of this set: it contains in some cases the only, in others (also) the best, recordings of this very important area (the concerti) of Rautavaara’s work.

Indeed, the eleven pieces named as “concerto” (some have subtitles…“Dances with the Winds” (flute concerto), “Angel of Dusk” (double bass), “Gift of Dreams” (3rd piano) and “Annunciations” (organ, winds) as well as the aforementioned Cantus Arcticus (birds) in the set plus the Ballad for Harp and Strings are among Rautavaara’s most characteristically beautiful, gentle and penetratingly original works. “Original” is an important concept. The music is largely tonal, but it inhabits a sound world of great depth and confidence, in the ways, almost, in which the symphonies of, say, Schumann, Brahms and Sibelius himself did.

Rautavaara’s concerti also occupy a somewhat conventional position in the variety of forms the concerto can take, from its origins as an integrated form for members of the Baroque orchestra, through soloist-as-hero/heroine in the late nineteenth century, back to concerti for orchestra. For Rautavaara the model is definitely one of opposition—the soloist in conflict with the orchestra. The soloist stands out and stands for the individual, perhaps irretrievably, and uncompromisingly, against all-comers.

But Rautavaara’s are not concerti of robust, bombastic or unduly bravura mien. Maybe that’s because Rautavaara’s music is essentially gentle (though not genteel), serious (though not grave) and thoughtful (though not ponderous). His concerti have a lot to say aside from the interests in the counter-play of instrument and orchestra. They’re neither races (to the loudest realm, or first to finish) nor foregone conclusions. Through-composed, they sensitively and comfortably explore the result of privileging the themes, textures and sounds generally of one instrument (at times, Yes, even pitching it) against others. Yet for Rautavaara each solo instrument still always belongs to the orchestra “against” which it is working. It’s capable, for example, of the same degrees of variety and surprise as is a full orchestra; and is never the wayward child of other writers in the form. An ama
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Over the years Rautavaara has spoken to audiences in a variety of styles. Some of his works are strongly avant-garde; others are more lyrically accessible. Whichever style you encounter he always orchestrates with stark yet poetic clarity.

The Violin Concerto is getting on for three decades old. In two movements, the first of these is extremely lyrical with the violin often dizzyingly high in its range. It operates quietly—a picture in sound of an ice cavern: crystalline, glistening; The Lark Ascending meditating on the Berg concerto or the Szymanowskis. The second movement is more explosive. In both movements the composer keeps in touch with the Finnish countryside and especially in the first there are links with the nature painting of his remarkable Cantus Arcticus. Oliveira digs deeply into his role. I am pleased that we have the even, yet intensely succulent and poignant tone of Oliveira to present this work to the world. The work was written in New York with technical assistance from Eugene Sarbu.

The compact Cello Concerto saws away deep in the auburn territory between baritone and bass—heavy with premonition and a chant-like soul. It marks in undiluted lyrical terms a turning away from dodecaphony. Textures are left bare yet never Spartan. Some of the writing is reminiscent of Barber (sultry) and Schuman (springy, powered and athletic) yet more melodic than either of them—the mark of his New York years perhaps.

Olli Kosonen worked with Rautavaara on Angel of Dusk—the Concerto for Double Bass and recorded it for Finlandia. The lustrous canvas gleams in the hands of Esko Laine and the Tapiola Sinfonietta. This is at one level yet the music surges with tidal power at lower levels. The last two movements hum with dark chaotic tension and cello acts as a tireless cantor redolent of the relationship between solo and orchestra in Rubbra’s Soliloquy (Cello Classics and Lyrita). Especially in the finale one is occasionally reminded in the string writing of 1960s Penderecki but the dominance here is lyrical. The recording used here has been licensed from Bis (BIS-CD-910)—credit to the two companies for such open-minded collaboration in the interests of Ondine’s enlightened endeavour on behalf of Rautavaara. Angel of Dusk is part of the composer’s Angels series: Angels and Visitations, Playgrounds for Angels and Angel of Light.

We next hear two works for harp and orchestra. The overture-length Ballad is both Baltic-poetic and wildly emotional. It shudders with fracture lines. The music reminds me of a sort of avant-garde extension of Sibelius’s The Bard—more emotionally candid. The Harp Concerto is in three movements. The solo—here played by Marielle Nordmann—is bolstered by two ‘assisting’ harps which enable the harp voicings to be heard above the otherwise overpowering phalanx of orchestral sound. The music is at the surface redolent of Ravel’s Introduction and Allegro and Debussy’s Danses Sacrée et Danses
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The four CDs in Rautavaara: Concertos, from Ondine, will expand your love for the 81-year-old Finnish composer’s oeuvre far beyond his wondrous, best-selling “Cantus Arcticus” Concerto for Birds and Orchestra. Three concertos for piano and orchestra (played by dedicatees Ralf Gothóni and Vladimir Ashkenazy) join others on violin, cello, double bass, harp, flute, and clarinet (with its dedicatee, Richard Stoltzman). There’s also a concerto for the unusual combination of organ, brass quintet, and symphonic wind orchestra, plus a Ballad for Harp and Strings.