Einojuhani RAUTAVAARA (b. 1928)
Lost Landscapes (2005) [20:33]
Summer Thoughts (1972/2008) [4:28]
April Lines (1970/2006) [8:55]
Notturno e Danza (1993) [7:18]
Variétude for solo violin (1974) [6:01]
Dithyrambos (1970) [2:22]
Pelimannit (The Fiddlers) - suite for piano based on traditional
fiddle tunes (1952) [20:03]
Pekka Kuusisto (violin)
Paavali Jumppanen (piano)
rec. Sello Hall, Espoo, Finland, 28-30 December 2010. DDD
ONDINE ODE 1177-2 [70:31]
Ondine has confirmed its superior position by issuing boxed collections of
Rautavaara's symphonies
and concertos.
These pieces for violin and piano are less ambitious and more directly accessible.
The Lost Landscapes have titles linked to the composer's pilgrim student
years in the 1950s. Tanglewood refers to his sojourn in Boston having
been selected for the scholarship by Sibelius. There he studied with Sessions
and Copland. The music for this and the other pieces is lyrical with a slightly
dissonant buzz. It's like Howells with astringent attitude. Summer Thoughts
recycles material from the 1970s though not the tough erudition of the
Violin Concerto and Third Symphony. The music bubbles up with a lyrical and
touching impulse. April Lines draws on incomplete ideas from the same
decade but is slightly more caustic. The crystalline faceting of Notturno
e Danza describes a double arc in a broadly rung carillon. The piano provides
breathing and punctuation for the lovely lines spun by the violin. This is
a delightful piece - fresh, lucid and singing with joy and a faint overlay
of sorrow. The 1974 Variétude takes us back to the dissonant and barbed
embroidery of the spiky years. The very brief Dithyrambos sprints with
the joy later recaptured in Summer Thoughts and April Lines.
The six movements of The Fiddlers Suite will, like as not, be known
at least to staunch followers of Finnish music by the orchestral variant once
found on a Fennica LP. It is heard here in the version for solo piano. Each
of the tunes is preceded by Kuusisto playing the fiddle tune that corresponds
to each of the six movements. The music has a relishably harsh drone to catch
the rasp of the folk originals. Everything is well documented, nicely honed
and polished yet fresh and well connected to folk dance. It’s almost Hardyesque
with moments that hint at Grainger and Bartók.
Rob Barnett
Fresh, lucid and singing with joy and a faint overlay of sorrow