Rautavaara: Rubáiyát, Balada, Canto V & 4 Songs from Rasputin

Featuring

John Storgårds
Gerald Finley
Mika Pohjonen
Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra
Helsinki Music Centre Choir
Einojuhani Rautavaara

Did you know?

1/7

Composition History

Rautavaara first encountered the poetry of Omar Khayyam (1048-1131), a Persian mathematician, astronomer, and philosopher, in 1949 but only set it to music 63 years later with his work Rubáiyát.

Composition History

Rautavaara's opera Rasputin (2001-2003), based on the Russian mystic and 'mad monk' Grigori Rasputin, remains his most recent opera.

Performer Biography

Gerald Finley, the Grammy-award winning Canadian baritone, was made an Officer of the Order of Canada in 2014.

Composer Biography

Rautavaara's career spanned various styles, from early Neo-Classicism to dodecaphony and serialism, then to a 'Neo-Romantic' or 'post-modern' style, culminating in a late synthesis style.

Composition History

Rautavaara's cantata Balada (2014) for tenor, choir, and orchestra, recycled material from an opera about Federico García Lorca, a Spanish poet, that was never completed due to the composer's serious illness.

Composer's Artistic Vision

Einojuhani Rautavaara, the composer, often described himself as a midwife, not the mother, in the birth of his compositions, emphasizing their unconscious dimensions.

Compositional Technique

Rautavaara's five Canto works for string orchestra, including Canto V, provide a cross-section of his stylistic development, ranging from dodecaphonic extracts to Neo-Romantic and later synthesis styles.