Rautavaara: A Requiem in Our Time

 

A Requiem in Our Time and A Soldier's Mass are multi-movement works for brass ensemble from Finnish composer Einojuhani Rautavaara. The two pieces seem to go together well, despite over a decade separating the works, both composed some 60 - 70 years ago.

Requiem is more strikingly appealing, with diverse movements across its runtime. Soldier's Mass is more musically harrowing, perhaps speaking from a composer with more years on his shoulders. These are some of the most appealing works on this recording, where I can understand their popularity on record and in performance.

I have similar thoughts regarding Rautavaara's Playground for Angels, although its music is quite different, utilizing aleatoric techniques and unusual sounds from the brass instruments. The composer tends to write his angel-based compositions in racing, swirling rhythms amidst close-knit harmonies, thus the title here is quite easy to imagine for the listener. So too, the brief Independence Fanfare is among Rautavaara's most straight-forward piece of music, with hints of the composer's harmonic personality.

I am not too hot on the Octet for Winds, written in Rautavaara's 60s serialist phase. Like his Second and Fourth Symphonies or the Modificata, the tone-row harmonies employed are dissonant and craggy. While the composer attempts to make the music lyrical and personal, as is his style, such things do not save this Octet for this listener, although I do enjoy its playful moments. You may have more tolerance for such things than I.

The solo playing by Finnish trumpeter Pasi Pirinen is astounding, even if I don't completely understand Tarantará, other than its intended use as a test piece for hopeful professional trumpeters. Hymnus makes more of an impression on me, here recorded in the Helsinki Cathedral for its pipe organ presence. Beautiful music, where it is good to hear Rautavaara writing for pipe organ again, here less avant-garde and more meditative than the mercurial Annunciations.

What a wonderful way to showcase Rautavaara's compositions for brass, even if the Octet for Winds will never be featured regularly on my playlist. Plus, the pieces come from all across his career as a composer, dating from 1953 to 1998; and he still had another 18 years of composing left!

Hannu Lintu and the Finnish Brass Symphony perform excellently across this repertoire. I get the feeling this ensemble is probably a pick-up group, for this appears to be their only recording. No matter, as they excel in each challenge Rautavaara throws at them. Ondine's sonics are terrific as well.

 

 

 

Works
A Requiem in Our Time (11.03)
Playgrounds for Angels (12.26)
A Soldier's Mass (10.39)
Octet for Winds (15.11)
Hymnus (6.07)
Tarantará (5.01)
Independence Fanfare (0.37)

Soloists
Pasi Pirinen, trumpet

Ensembles
Finnish Brass Symphony

Hannu Lintu, conductor 

Label: Ondine
Year: 2000
Total Timing: 62.05

What a celebration having all of Rautavaara's brass ensemble music gathered together in one spot.

Still, the longest work here is not much to my tastes, written in an unappealing modernist serialist technique. No thank you!

The performances are excellent, regardless, and I am enthusiastic regarding most of the pieces on this recording.

 

Find more Rautavaara recordings HERE!