Users' Reviews
By CZ79786
06-Apr-2010
A lesser-known Finnish master It’s unfortunate how little Finnish orchestral music outside of Sibelius finds its way into American concert halls, but Finnish music has done a lot better on recordings thanks, for the most part, to the Ondine label. It’s safe to say that the music of Uuno Klami (1900-1961) is really not known outside of Finland but this recording of three of his fine orchestral works makes a good introduction composer to a top-notch composer.
If you are expecting the stark power and drama of Sibelius, Klami may not be your man. Truth be told there is more of the color of Ravel and pungency of Stravinsky in the works heard on this recording. The tone poem Northern Lights owes much to Ravel and impresses with its shifts of orchestral colors. A more modern sound—Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring was on Klami’s mind –
is heard in the Cheremissian Fantasy, a piece for cello and orchestra. This two movement work shifts from a somberly melodic opening movement to a fiery second movement laced with just a bit of savagery. Klami’s best-known work, Kalevala Suite, rounds out the program and he displays his superb gifts as an orchestrator and as a master of hyper-Romantic nature music.
The performances by the Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by John Stogårds are marvelously idiomatic, this music is in their blood and it shows. Cellist Samuli Peltonen is a stand-out in the Cheremissian Fantasy, singing with beautiful full tone in the first movement and burning down the house in the second. The recording has wonderfully natural sound – typical of most Ondine orchestral recordings – and solid liner notes. Take note, Ondine also has recordings of Klami’s symphonies and another disc of tone poems.
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Published Reviews
By Phillip Scott
Fanfare
01-Jul-2010
Uuno Klami (1900–1961) is one of the best-known of those Finnish composers who flourished in the wake of Sibelius, although Klami was also influenced by French and Russian music of the early 20th century. He was especially renowned for his orchestral works, of which the five tone poems comprising the Kalevala Suite (1943) are the most familiar and most often recorded. His best music maintains a bracing rhythmic momentum and reveals an attractive vein of lyricism.
The tone poem Northern Lights (1946) was new to me. The piece does not seem to have been recorded before (or, at any rate, no previous recording appears to be available). It evokes a Sibelian atmosphere; Klami’s music became more appreciably nationalistic after the Second World War. It is a lovely work, with a Ravelian sheen to the orchestration. While there are moments where swirling woodwind and harp glissandi suggest the dazzling phenomenon of the northern lights, Klami’s penchant for melodic cells keeps the music anchored. Around the 10-minute mark a cheeky waltz episode appears, and a suitably grand chorale provides a satisfying coda.
The Cheremissian Fantasy for cello and orchestra (1931) is in two movements, slow and fast, its thematic material loosely based on folk tunes from northern Finland. The cellist is given the bulk of the melodic material, which young soloist Samuli Peltonen plays here with fine tone and lots of heart.
The main work on this disc is the Kalevala Suite. In five movements, its layout could be regarded as symphonic. The first movement, “The Creation of the Earth,” is the equivalent of a sweeping symphonic allegro with a mysterious introduction and gentle postlude added. The second movement,“The Sprout of Spring,” is a scherzo with a lyrical second subject; the third, “Terhenniemi,”—apparently a late addition—serves as an evocative interlude before the calm of the slow movement, “Cradle Song for Lemminkäinen,” and grandeur of the finale, “The Forging of the Sampo.”
The suite’s programmatical basis lies in the great Finnish national epic, the Kalevala, which also inspired much of Sibelius’s music. Indeed, Klami’s work was initially commissioned by Robert Kajanus, chief conductor of the Helsinki Philharmonic and a friend and champion of the older composer. (Kajanus died before the suite reached its final completed form.) Sibelius does not seem to be a major influence until the final movement, and even then the theme on which the movement is based (first played by the English horn) primarily suggests Grieg. Again, Klami’s melodic ease and expertly detailed orchestration leave their stamp on the work.
Storgärds and the modern-day Helsinki Philharmonic give it everything they’ve got in this stunningly recorded program: Tender moments sound gorgeous, the climaxes leap out at you, and Storgärds’ plush, well-balanced orchestral textures do not preclude tensimore....
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