Rautavaara’s Violin Concerto (1976-7) opens to a quiet chiming and high-flying solo cantilena that recalls – in spirit if not in design – the first pages of Prokofiev’s First Violin Concerto. The first principal climax (at around 3'16'') marks a violent contrast in mood – a returning exile, perhaps, faced head-on with some unimaginable catastrophe. Rautavaara himself posits the notion of travel in sound (his own booklet-notes act as a vivid guide), and the connection is well made. Beyond a retreat to relative calm, the soloist intones intense chords against filigree, bird-like arabesques on a solo flute. Euphonious waves of sound carry us forward to a capricious accompanied cadenza (echoes of Bartok’s ‘night music’), the mood sweetens considerably (8'45''), arpeggiated solo writing suggests further parallels with Prokofiev and the music fades on a gentle array of tuned percussion and a return to the opening idea. The second movement sets into action with a scrum between violin, brass and percussion; there’s a virtuoso cadenza (of Elmar Oliveira’s own making) and a busy finale that pays tribute to an “endless stream of noise from Fifth Avenue” (the concerto’s last pages were composed in New York).
Isle of bliss (1995) was inspired by the work of the Finnish poet Aleksis Kivi, whose Home of the Birds is mirrored in Rautavaara’s music. The “fast-moving, bright and carefree opening” is somewhat reminiscent of Roy Harris (in particular the faster sections of his Third Symphony), whereas the mysteries that follow suggest a ravishing variety of post-impressionism. Isle of bliss is a grandchild of the Sibelius tone-poems, a haunting dreamscape superbly orchestrated, and one should be heartened to think that a work of this quality was composed within the last two years (forget all the tiresome arguments about whether or not it conforms to this or that ‘school’ of modern music).
Angels and Visitations (1978) was the first in Rautavaara’s Angel Series (the latest being the Angel of Light, or Seventh Symphony, that I reviewed last June). Rilke was a prime mover this time, though the composer’s childhood vision of a “mighty presence” is equally significant. Musically, the work enters on cymbal sea-spray backed by quietly curling string figurations. Contrasts abound, from the cold purity of the string writing (8'00'', or thereabouts – echoes of Sibelius’s Sixth), to disruptive interjections (roughly 40 seconds on) and rhythmic computations reminiscent of Stravinsky’s The Rite of Spring (11'27''). One can easily imagine Angels and Visitations as the soundtrack to a troubled dream sequence and the performance is – like its disc companions – wholly convincing.
Ondine’s 1996 Finlandia Hall recordings capture the full breadth of Rautavaara’s orchestral soundstage and are a considerable source of pleasure in themselves. I thought of commending this disc as a worthwhile musical byway, but to be honest, it’s a lot more than that. Isle of bliss in particular offers the kind of concise, warmly voiced orchestral writing that even the best tone-painters rarely achieved, and I cannot recommend it too highly.'