Rautavaara's Riverboat

[snyprrr]

i remember having and enjoying the original ondine symphonies (1-5)., along with the syms. of kalevi AHO. on ondine. and Kokkonen!!!

forgive me, but it seemed to me that the takemitsu effect took hold on rautavaara, the holy mysticism of it all, and i fully expect him to write a Mass for Nietchtze (sic?), which will be a beautiful humanist plea to the atlantians...it will win a grammy. it just seems that compositional technique has come so far as to make the spiritual easy in music...the spiritual "sounding" that is.

after the segerstam thread....i'm compelled to hear rautavaara's string quartet No.4 (1976) which i hear has quite an atmosphere.

[snyprrr]

thats...nietzsche!

[J.Z. Herrenberg]

thats...nietzsche!

Bless you.

[vandermolen]

Bless you.

[vandermolen]

Just discovered Symphony No 1. Beautiful long opening movement, which like Hyasaka's Piano Concerto opening movement, I suspect that I will end up playing on its own.

[Dundonnell]

Just discovered Symphony No 1. Beautiful long opening movement, which like Hyasaka's Piano Concerto opening movement, I suspect that I will end up playing on its own.

[MDL]

I'm giving this thread a bump because I've just got my hands on my first Rautavaara CD, the 6th Symphony and the Cello Concerto, and although I've only had a chance to play the symphony once (it's been a busy week), I can't wait to explore it further. It's an eclectic work, mixing avant-garde crash-bang-wallops with more melodic material, and includes substantial sections for electronic instruments. I want to see if it all hangs together on repeated listenings. And I've still got the Cello Concerto to explore.


http://www.amazon.com/Rautavaara-Symphony-No-Cello-Concerto/dp/B00000377W

[hector murrieta]

I love his music, and recorded a while ago a work for guitar: "Serenades of the Unicorn", which I had on my website until a month ago, when I uploaded new music from my new CD.

He's a fantastic composer.

[Häuschen]

Over the weekend, I listened to the Tapiola Choir recording Water Under Snow is Weary (Ondine, 1988) which is chock full of some fantastic contemporary Finnish choral pieces.  It finishes with a great Rautavaara composition, Marjatta, matala neiti.  It's sort of a Finnish mystery play with plenty of spooky tone clusters sung by the childrens' choir, narrated by the composer and the role of Marjatta sung by his young wife, Sini.  Anyone heard this disc?  I don't know of many other children choirs capable of such achingly beautiful folk songs one moment and blood-curdling screams the next.

Another one of my favorite works is his Myth of Sampo for male choir, soloists and tape which also contains some wonderful hair-raising moments.  Amazingly it's still in print.

[Tapio Dimitriyevich Shostakovich]

My first (not yet) complete listen to Rautavaara Symphony No. 7 'Angel of Light' with Vänskä/Lahti - Just finished mvmt 3 "Come un sogno". Some parts clearly sound like a rewrite (or is it vice versa) of the 'Melancholy' in "Cantus Arcticus". A lot of magic so far, I'm very excited.... is it from this world?
... Mvmt4 finished now. Maybe a touch of drama.

I need to re-listen to the symphony. But there is a big question: If you know "Cantus Arcticus" - do you know the whole Rautavaara?

[springrite]

Boooooooo! 

I don't like the finality of it! He's still alive and kicking and i'm holding out for a 9th.

Nah! Instead of a 9th symphony, he will compose a vocal/choral work and call it Des Lied von der ------ something.

[Tapio Dimitriyevich Shostakovich]

he will compose a vocal/choral work and call it Des Lied von der ------ something.

Das Lied von der Banane?

[CRCulver]

If you know "Cantus Arcticus" - do you know the whole Rautavaara?

More or less. Rautavaara has been writing pieces indistinguishable from each other since the early 1970s, and he has admitted that he writes many of his new works by rearranging material from older works (see Sivuoja-Gunaratnam's monograph Narcissus musicus).

[greg]

More or less. Rautavaara has been writing pieces indistinguishable from each other since the early 1970s, and he has admitted that he writes many of his new works by rearranging material from older works (see Sivuoja-Gunaratnam's monograph Narcissus musicus).

Did he take this practice from Penderecki? 

[snyprrr]

Has anyone heard SQ No.4?

[Grazioso]

FYI, Ondine has collected Rautavaara's symphonies and concertos into two inexpensive box sets:

But there is a big question: If you know "Cantus Arcticus" - do you know the whole Rautavaara?

Nope

[Tahar Mouslim]

Has anyone heard SQ No.4?

Yes,

I listened to the 2 different renditions (Sirius String Quartet & Voces Intimae String Quartet) and I am not thrilled, although both interpretations are technically immaculate.

I am not sure the string quartet medium is one that fits well Rautavaara's skills & inspiration.

I find a lot of ideas in the first one, even if the form is not so strong, but the more you advance in time, the more I am puzzled.

There might be a good reason why he did not compose another string quartet during the last  34 years.

Too me, and I don't know everything (I don't know most of the symphonies so far), you find Rautavaara at his best in its choral music and everything he writes for human voice (some beautiful operas: Vincent, Aleksis Kivi, The House of Sun).

[Benji]

But there is a big question: If you know "Cantus Arcticus" - do you know the whole Rautavaara?

Not at all, if you look across his whole career to date. Having said that, he has been churning out some mostly indistinguishable orchestral suites (Manhattan Trilogy, Book of Visions) recently, but this seeming lack of inspiration might be due to his recent ill health. Let's not forget that the Cantus Articus is from the early 1970s, which dates before much more experimental work such as the Organ Concerto (1977) and later his 6th Symphony (1992) and the opera Vincent on which it is based (1987). Cantus Articus might have a dreamy open sound that makes it similar to the 7th Symphony (1994) and the Angel group of works that that symphony is grouped with, but I think it's a disservice to the composer to ignore everything that came inbetween for that reason.

Please, do continue to explore this composer, he actually has encompassed a wonderful variety of styles in his career, but all held together by a very individual and unmistakable 'voice'.

[vandermolen]

I still play Symphony No 8 'The Journey' a lot.

[Christo]

I still play Symphony No 8 'The Journey' a lot.

Well, I don't do that