Helvi Leiviskä considered herself among composers who did not follow fashion trends, believing that 'to compose is to search for and perhaps find a cosmos, a truth, in the midst of chaos'.
Composer's Artistic Vision
Helvi Leiviskä was a mystic for whom both music and religion were ways to approach God, and her theories were influenced by Pekka Ervasti, leader of the Rosicrucian movement in Finland.
Composer Biography
Helvi Leiviskä's father was a multitalented cultural figure and writer, and her uncle Juhani Siljo was one of Finland's best-known poets.
Composer's Artistic Vision
When asked what it was like to be a female composer, Helvi Leiviskä famously replied: 'I don't know, because I don't know what it is like to be a male composer.'
Composer Biography
Helvi Leiviskä was the best-known female composer of her generation in Finland and a member of the Finnish Composers' Association.
Composition History
Helvi Leiviskä composed music for the 1937 film Juha by Finnish avant-garde filmmaker Nyrki Tapiovaara, one of the first Finnish films to have specially composed music throughout.
Performer Biography
Dalia Stasevska, the conductor on this album, led the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra at the Nobel Prize Ceremony in 2018.
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