Rautavaara: Rubaiyat

 

Most recording programs featuring the music of Finnish composer Einojuhani Rautavaara mix the old with the new, a career which spans the 1950s to the 2010s. Here, listeners are treated to an orchestral song cycle, five choral pieces, and a work for string orchestra only, all composed between the years 2012 - 2015, giving into Rautavaara's popular late Neo-Romantic compositional style.

I have not heard any of the music from Rautavaara's opera Rasputin, but if these four choral songs taken from the stage work are any measure, I need to track it down. A parade of percussion joins a full symphony orchestra for some of the most colorful orchestral utterances I have heard from the composer, at least on a small scale. The chorus only adds to the riotous effects, particularly in the epically-scaled 2nd and 4th songs. Certainly, the 1st and 3rd songs sound more folk-song based than the others, with the third set aside for female voices only.

Balada is the other work featuring chorus, again taken from an opera, although this one was abandoned. Rautavaara already composed some music set to verse by Spanish poet Frederico García Lorca, where the composer keeps the native language in all of his music. The opening choral evocation sounds like a mix of minimalism and French planing to me, with the orchestra simply going back and forth between two chords, and lush sounds they evoke too.

At the halfway point, a solo tenor enters Balada, cuing the music to pick up the pace and dig in rhythmically and incisively. Finnish tenor Mika Pohjonen makes quite a heroic entrance, giving the work a startling central section compared to the plush opening, although it doesn't take long for Rautavaara to descend and dwell in mystical lyricism.

Rautavaara wrote four separate pieces for string orchestra entitled Canto, composed between the 1960s and the 1990s. Into the Heart of Light is Canto V, finishing off his series in 2012. I was not a big fan of Canto I - IV, for they were gruff and dissonant, although they established more of the composer's affable style as the decades wore on. Canto V is more immediately songful, even if Rautavaara tries to inject moments of modernism among his Neo-Romanticism, especially the composer's signature ear-twisting minor-second interval. The solo cello, which enters in the very last slice of the piece, is a treasure.

The gem of the recording, in a program filled with precious jewels, is the song-cycle Rubáiyát, here performed in its orchestrated version. Canadian baritone Gerald Finley aces this piece, one which gives enough time over to the orchestra as it does the voice. The songs use the English translation of Omar Khayyam's humanistic verse, one which revels as much in the delights of drink as it does instigate the idea of man's free will over government and religion. I am most familiar with the musical setting by Granville Bantock, but Rautavaara's five songs with four orchestral interludes is equally successful, and at only 18 minutes too.

The last I heard Gerald Finley in orchestrated song was a recording of art songs from Finnish composer Jean Sibelius on Chandos. I declared that recital an impressive, must-hear performance, and I daresay, this one deserves the same adulations. Finley is stunningly expressive, while eager to declaim the texts meaningfully. While the vocal line is written wonderfully, Rautavaara places many musical moments at the top of the vocal range, and Finley does a lovely job of it too. Rautavaara's orchestral score is quite colorful as well, ensorceling the baritone in Neo-Romantic goodness. 

John Storgårds leads the Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra beautifully in this Rautavaara program, easily equaling what Leif Segerstam had recorded by the composer previously. The Helsinki Music Centre Choir is very good, although the ensemble does not rank with the very finest symphonic choirs. Despite that, I actually enjoy their work here very much, especially after recently striking out with two Finnish choirs, the Finnish Philharmonic Choir and the Cathedralis Aboensis. At least the Music Centre Choir is confident and fully committed in voice throughout. As mentioned above, the vocal soloists are all excellent and Ondine balances all of these forces nicely.

 

 

Works
Rubáiyát (18.10)
Into the Heart of Light (13.05)
Balada (16.55)
Rasputin: Four Songs (10.41)

Soloists
Mika Pohjonen, tenor
Gerald Finley, baritone

Ensembles
Helsinki Music Centre Choir
Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra
John Storgårds, conductor

Label: Ondine
Year: 2016
Total Timing: 59.29

A program of an English-language orchestrated song cycle, a choral tone poem in Spanish, four choral songs in Finnish, and a standalone string-orchestra piece is unusual.

Yet, there are many treasures to find here, written in Rautavaara's lush Neo-Romantic late style. Stunning hardly does justice to Gerald Finley's performance of Rubáiyát, but really, the whole recording is rather beautiful, and sometimes powerful.

Find more Rautavaara recordings HERE!