IDAGIO | Kuula: 3 Fairy-Tale Pictures / 3 Pieces - Merikanto: From the World of Children 7318590001981

Featuring

Eero Juhani Heinonen
Toivo Kuula
Oskar Merikanto

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Cultural Impact

Oskar Merikanto's Wedding March is one of the most frequently heard wedding marches in Finland, alongside those by Mendelssohn and Wagner.

Composition History

Toivo Kuula's Three Fairy-Tale Pictures were sketched in Berlin, where he spent several months to experience European contemporary musical life and focus on composing.

Cultural Impact

Oskar Merikanto's vocal romances are considered folk-songs in Finland, and his music served as an intermediary between folk-music and concert music.

Composer's Artistic Vision

Toivo Kuula's compositions consciously aimed for French impressionism, but his most characteristic feature was a brooding, pathetic melody rooted in his native Southern Ostrobothnia.

Compositional Technique

The second Fairy-Tale Picture, reminiscent of impressionism with its whole-tone scales, is one of the rare virtuoso pieces in Finnish piano music of the romantic period.

Composer Biography

Toivo Kuula's imagination was constantly filled with fairy tales; he read, invented, and often told them to his fiancée, the singer Alma Silventoinen.

Composer Biography

Oskar Merikanto was a highly versatile musician, working as a composer, pianist, organist, teacher, choir leader, opera conductor, and newspaper critic.