After soaring skywards with his ‘angel’ series it was hardly surprising that the Finnish master Einojuhani Rautavaara should respond to the challenge of writing a Harp Concerto. The prompt came from the Minnesota Orchestra‚ and the harpists Skaila Kanga and Reija Bister helped ensure playability. Not being content with a single harp‚ and yet not especially wanting to write a concerto for three harps‚ Rautavaara called on two orchestral harps as back up. The result is a delicate if occasionally tart variation on an already familiar aerated orchestral style‚ piquant in the second movement where small groups of instruments alternate and with a finale that resembles (but doesn’t quite amount to) a passacaglia. The score’s opening phrase is strongly reminiscent of the slow movement from Sibelius’s Fourth Symphony while its most dramatic moments heckle at the centre of the first movement. But for the most part‚ Rautavaara’s fresh­minted Harp Concerto – completed as recently as last year – is musical dialogue based around the idea of singing arpeggios. All three players acquit themselves with evident expertise and Leif Segerstam assures a fluid and sonorous performance. 1999’s Eighth Symphony is bigger in scope and more obviously narrative in nature than the Concerto. Composed for the Philadelphia Orchestra and premièred as a recording (conducted by Wolfgang Sawallisch) on the Internet‚ the Symphony is dominated by a rising fourth that’s first heard on horns not long after the sombre opening pages. It’s a craggy‚ organic‚ frequently sensual and mostly tonal essay‚ a calming listen and light years removed from the restless ‘isms’ of the avant­garde. As with the Harp Concerto‚ Segerstam connects with Rautavaara’s ‘journeying’ style (the idea of embarking on a journey is central to the spirit of the piece)‚ gliding across expansive harmonious terrains that are occasionally visited by timpani storms and keeping a firm hold on the majestic but mobile finale. The scherzo is mostly disruptive‚ with grating interjections underpinned by a long­breathed stream of melody. Throughout the Symphony I was reminded of Roy Harris‚ occasionally of Hovhaness and‚ in the finale‚ of Martin². And while there’s a recognisable connection with other recent Rautavaara (especially in the evocative slow movement)‚ the larger musical journey is certainly progressing. Here‚ as before‚ the composer’s agenda is less to argue than to describe. He continues to conjure musical dreamscapes and the invitation to join him is as seductive as ever. Ondine’s recordings are warm and sonorous.