Finnish Orchestral Favourites
フィンランド管弦楽名曲集
There is no doubt that the most famous of all Finnish composers mustbe Jean Sibelius (1865-1957), a masterly symphonist who captured the spirit andhistory of his own country in a series of symphonies, tone-poems and otherworks. Finlandia, in particular, became a symbol of the country’sstruggle for independence, a cause in which Sibelius was closely involved. Itwas written in 1899 as part of the music for the press pensions celebration ofthat year, an event that was transformed into a patriotic demonstration againstRussian power. Valse triste, which won widespread popularity in avariety of arrangements but made little money for the composer, was composed in1903 to accompany a death scene in a play by SibeliusEbrother-in-law, ArvidJärnefelt.
全てのフィンランドの作曲家の中で最も有名なのはシベリウス（1865-1957）に違いないということには、疑う余地はないく、一連の交響曲、交響詩、およびその他の作品において彼自身の祖国の精神性と歴史を捉えた主要な交響曲作家である。フィンランディアは、とくに、祖国の独立への闘争の象徴となった。
シベリウスはその原因を含んだ。
それは1899年に、その年のロシアの圧政に対する愛国kてきな民主運動に変形されるイベントである、プレスpensionの祝典のための音楽の一部として、作曲された。
Valsetriste（「悲しきワルツ」）は、さまざまな編曲で人口に膾炙しているが、1903年にシベリウスの義理のEbrotherのArvidJarnefeltにより祈りにおける死の情景にaccompanyされた。
Leevi Madetoja (1887-1947) was a pupil of Sibelius in Helsinki andlater of Vincent d’Indy in Paris and Robert Fuchs in Vienna. He had a careeras a conductor, teacher, critic and composer, and won particular success withhis opera Pohjalaisia (The Ostrobothnians), composed in 1923, staged in1935 and generally regarded as the first significant Finnish contribution tothe genre. His Elegy for Strings forms part of his Symphonic Suite,Opus 4, of 1910.
Born in the previous decade, Erkki Melartin (1875-1937) studied inHelsinki and with Fuchs in Vienna, then broadening his education with furthertravel and study before returning to Finland, where he spent a number of yearsas director of the Helsinki Music Institute. Like Madetoja, he belongs to thegeneration of nationalist composers following Sibelius. Prolific as a composerboth of lighter and of more serious music, he is widely remembered for hispopular Festive March, heard at many Finnish weddings and taken fromMelartin’s incidental music to the play Prinsessa Ruusunea (SleepingBeauty). The Wedding March by Toivo Kuula (1883-1918), whose promise asa leading composer in the generation after Sibelius was cut short by his deathafter the Finnish Civil War, enjoys similar popularity.
Armas Järnefelt (1869-1958), another brother-in-law of Sibelius and amember of a family of distinguished talent and strongly nationalist sympathies,studied with Martin Wegelius and Ferruccio Busoni in Helsinki, in Berlin andthen in Paris with Massenet. For a number of years he was principal conductorat the Royal Opera in Stockholm, while as a composer he is chiefly rememberedfor his Praeludium and Berceuse, the popularity of which haseclipsed other works of his.
Oskar Merikanto (1868-1924) played an important part in Finnishmusical life. His numerous piano pieces enjoyed domestic popularity, togetherwith his many songs and he made a significant contribution to the developmentof church music in Finland and to operatic performance. His Romance andValse lente have been orchestrated for the present recording by JormaPanula.
The reputation of Heino Kaski (1885-1957) depends largely on his pianomusic and one of his best known pieces is his Prelude in G flat major,which he also arranged for orchestra. A composer of another kind is HeikkiAaltoila (1905-1992), who wrote music for 150 plays and more than 75 films. Hisbest known work is his Wedding Waltz of Akseli and Elina, written forEdvin Laine’s film Here beneath the North Star. Even better known inFinland must be the Finnish Prayer by Taneli Kusisto (1905-1988), asetting of words by Uuno Kailas, here orchestrated by Jorma Panula.
Einojuhani Rautavaara (1928- ) belongs to a younger generation, apupil of Merikanto in Helsinki and then of Vincent Persichetti, Aaron Coplandand Roger Sessions in America, following this with study in Ascona withWladimir Vogel and in Cologne with Rudolf Petzold. He has remained open to awider range of contemporary influences. Fiddlers, Opus 1, was written in1952 and is derived from folk material.
From a rather earlier generation, Uuno Klami (1900-1961) alsorepresents a move away from romantic nationalism towards a wider spectrum ofinfluences, creating synthesis between Finnish thematic material and stylisticinfluences from abroad. He studied intermittently, as funds allowed, inHelsinki and then spent a year in Paris, returning to demonstrate a command oforchestration that reflected the influence of Ravel. His Sea Pictures,of which the movement Nocturne (Song of the Watch) is here included,dates from the early 1930s, a reminder of his own early memories of the sea,near which he spent his childhood.
Aulis Sallinen (1935- ) is among the most distinguished ofcontemporary Finnish composers, significant for his operas as for hiscontribution to may different genres of music. Sunrise Serenade followedSallinen’s opera Kullervo and is scored for strings, two trumpets andpiano, a depiction of the transition from dark to light, a message ofoptimism.
Keith Anderson
(based on notes by Ralf Hermans)
