Rautavaara: True & False Unicorn

 

After listening to 18 CDs of music from Finnish composer Einojuhani Rautavaara, , plus an additional 8 random works I streamed, surprises are not something I expected to come across. Yet, here I am with the composer's bizarre cantata True & False Unicorn.

It is as if Rautavaara has synthesized the choral offerings of Britten, Bernstein, Stravinsky, Honegger, and Orff and came up with True & False Unicorn, a work based on the verse of lusty US beat poet James Broughton. The titular Unicorn is self-aware, not sure of its place in life, both as a fantastical creature and as a cultural metaphor, trying to find its identity. I say this as if there is an inherent plot across the music, however, this is more a string of loosely related poems.

Each of the four large sections of Unicorn begins with an orchestral prelude, and then is further split into smaller choral segments from within the larger portions. The chorus is utilized throughout, either in a singing role or as a speaking group, sometimes traditionally, sometimes radically.

It is the musical styles Rautavaara draws from which yields the most surprises from this listener. Jazz, African-American spirituals, tongue-in-cheek German-accented sprechstimme, and even an unexpected parody on God Save the Queen. While the unicorn is known for its white beauty and horn, Broughton twists these images into poetic phallic desire, making for some not-so-subtle adult verse.

The individual songs are only 1 - 3 minutes in length, and diametrically oppose each other for great variety from song to song. At one moment, Rautavaara may be setting 20th Century angularity, while the next could be heard as a vaudeville band number, and yet another coming from the composer's expected mystical lushness. Humor has not been an aspect prevalent in Rautavaara's music, nor has the composer ever aped such a wide-ranged variety of musical styles in this way, thus be prepared to expect the unexpected.

The Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra and Chamber Choir are simply outstanding across the board. The singing is cohesive and the playing is characterful, making for an excellent single recording of this work. Even the soloists from within do fine work, especially Jaakko Kortekangas as Sigmund of Vienna, articulating a fine German accent without the on-the-nose archness of a Colonel Klink.

I expect True & False Unicorn will befuddle many listeners. It is a product of the early 1970s, although Rautavaara revised the piece in the early 2000s, removing the dated electronica from that time period in preference for a full choral/orchestral score. I would love to hear that earlier version, for I am sure it is even trippier than what we have here.

CD4 of Ondine's set of Rautavaara Choral Works, which I am going through individually in this Works Series entry, pairs the composer's True & False Unicorn with the choral/orchestral On the Last Frontier. The two pieces couldn't be more different from one another, thus if you were scared off by Unicorn, its pairing should easily please the masses.

I was reminded quite a few times during the 24-minute work of Ralph Vaughan Williams in his Toward the Unknown Region or A Sea Symphony. This is grandiose music with big musical gestures, ones which tie man's soul to the sea or the eternity of the universe. But Rautavaara does not use Walt Whitman as his poetic source, instead that of US writer Edgar Allan Poe in full landscape description mode.

Those who know Rautavaara's later musical style should be pleased here, for not only does he utilize the force of an entire symphony orchestra to color the grandness of the text, percussion ably colors the music even further, including the composer's beloved flexatone (!). Occasional use of that crunchy-sounding interval of a second comes and goes, an element of his later compositional style, here using chorus and orchestra against each other in this light dissonance effect.

While the Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra does their normal fine work, I am not entranced with the Finnish Philharmonic Choir. The sopranos in particular seem tasked by the range of Rautavaara's music, making their tone sound squinched. Maybe in general, more numbers of singers might have helped, or better yet, the splendid Finnish Radio Chamber Choir from True & False Unicorn might have been available.

If I am not taken with Vaughan Williams' Toward the Unknown Region, I do enjoy On the Last Frontier very much. This is exactly how I would like to remember the best of of Rautavaara's music, whether it is from his symphonies, concertos, or choral music. Great stuff, with stunning immediacy!

Work Series
Vol. 4 of Rautavaara's Choral Works on Ondine


Works
On the Last Frontier (24.01)
True & False Unicorn (46.41)

Ensembles
Finnish Philharmonic Choir
Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra
Leif Segerstam, conductor (Frontier)

Finnish Radio Chamber Choir
Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra
Timo Nuoranne, conductor (Unicorn)

Label: Ondine
Year: 1998 & 2002; 2012
Total Timing: 70.56

Find more Rautavaara recordings HERE!