Rautavaara: Symphony No. 7, Angel of Light / Dances With Winds, Op. 69 / Cantus Arcticus, Op. 61

Featuring

Osmo Vänskä
Petri Alanko
Lahti Symphony Orchestra
Einojuhani Rautavaara

Did you know?

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Composer Biography

Rautavaara has a prolific output, including seven operas, seven symphonies, seven solo concertos, chamber music, and choral works.

Composer's Artistic Vision

Rautavaara's 'Angel' series, including 'Angel of Light,' was inspired by Rainer Maria Rilke's 'Duino's Elegies,' where 'Every angel is terrifying.'

Composer's Artistic Vision

Rautavaara agrees with Carl Gustav Jung, believing that an artist allows art to realize its purposes through them, rather than pursuing their own ends.

Composer Biography

Einojuhani Rautavaara, born in Finland in 1928, received a grant from Jean Sibelius, the famous Finnish composer, to study at the Juilliard School in New York.

Compositional Technique

Rautavaara's Seventh Symphony is described as 'Western, 'Faustian' music,' with motifs, particularly a hymn-like theme, appearing in all four movements in different variations.

Composition History

Rautavaara's Symphony No. 7, 'Angel of Light,' was commissioned by the Bloomington Symphony Orchestra, which gave its first performance in 1995.

Recording & Production

For 'Cantus arcticus,' a 'concerto for birds and orchestra,' Rautavaara himself used a tape recorder to capture the sounds of arctic birds in northern marshlands, and a revised tape recording by the composer was used for this album.