Under the banner of the Sydney Festival, the Sydney Symphony Orchestra served up a fulsome feast of the music of the recently deceased Rautavaara, with three works from across his large portfolio of orchestral works, which includes eight symphonies and twelve concerti.
The concert commenced with the popular three movement Cantus Articus, Opus 61 (1972) which artfully incorporates recorded birdsong from the northern Finnish landscape. This remains a haunting work. The dovetailing of recorded birdsong with deftly pointed orchestral sounds was beautifully managed in this performance with the light clear touch that Rautavaara notates being expertly negotiated by the conductor, Benjamin Northey, and his players. The cadence towards silence at the end of the first movement- Suo (the Marsh) – was breathtaking, to the point where birdsong almost seemed to still the human world. The final movement of this work generated grave velocity through its dynamic ushering in of the migrating swans - Joutsenet muuttavat. This was richly dramatic music – almost Sibelian – within a carefully gradated neo romantic framework. The eerie power of nature was craftily articulated.
The second work, the Isle of Bliss (1995), was Rautavaara in a more relaxed, light-hearted mood, languorous almost, but with the music’s northern intent intact. A demonstration piece of orchestration it seemed to distil some landscape essence from Delius and then Ravel, but flecked its own distinctive palette across the orchestra. This involved luxuriant writing for strings and piquant interplay of woodwind. The piece, though joyous, also moved between light and shade in a dreamy landscape. As Edward Seckerson wrote twenty years ago, this is “music which is dream-like but precisely remembered”.
The final work was the substantial Symphony No 7, Angel of Light (1994). This work presented some startling and thrilling invention, notably the piquant interplay between brass and percussion (trombone and xylophone). The second movement - Molto allegro – was a knockout with enlarged brass summoning the dead, almost like a glittering arc angel, while the stomp of Bruckner was discernible in the repetition of motifs. The first movement – Tranquillo - was occasionally sluggish in invention and pacing, but Rautavaara always creates an arc of musical thought that returns us to recognisable thematic material and closes this the longest movement with sustained grace. Again, the delicate touch and musical thought bought echoes of Delius to mind as well as some of the suggestive seascapes of Bax. The slow movement - Come un Sogno - was tender and lyrical pointing to a dream world flecked by northern lights. The clarinet roulades, trilling flute like, were particularly arresting. The movement did not, however, carry any deep cumulative weight. The final movement – Pesante Cantabile - was full of tension and an inexorable rise towards the firmament with an array of brass proposing various heavenly chorales - the tuba almost playing a contra dance in this heavenly summons. The wide-ranging percussion flecked the score with gilded sounds. The roiling sound world emerging from the orchestra seemed to summon memories of the galvanic music that Sibelius wrote for his incidental music to Shakespeare’s Tempest (1925-26). This is a finely crafted symphony – with a discernible and lovable soundworld – and in its remembered visions seems to gently touch the infinite.
Overall, this was a fine concert for the somewhat sparsely populated schedule of classical music that the Sydney Festival offers.
Sydney Symphony Orchestra – Sydney Recital Hall, Angel Place – January 11, 2017
Under the banner of the Sydney Festival, the Sydney Symphony Orchestra served up a fulsome feast of the music of the recently deceased Rautavaara, with three works from across his large portfolio of orchestral works, which includes eight symphonies and twelve concerti.
The concert commenced with the popular three movement Cantus Articus, Opus 61 (1972) which artfully incorporates recorded birdsong from the northern Finnish landscape. This remains a haunting work. The dovetailing of recorded birdsong with deftly pointed orchestral sounds was beautifully managed in this performance with the light clear touch that Rautavaara notates being expertly negotiated by the conductor, Benjamin Northey, and his players. The cadence towards silence at the end of the first movement- Suo (the Marsh) – was breathtaking, to the point where birdsong almost seemed to still the human world. The final movement of this work generated grave velocity through its dynamic ushering in of the migrating swans - Joutsenet muuttavat. This was richly dramatic music – almost Sibelian – within a carefully gradated neo romantic framework. The eerie power of nature was craftily articulated.
The second work, the Isle of Bliss (1995), was Rautavaara in a more relaxed, light-hearted mood, languorous almost, but with the music’s northern intent intact. A demonstration piece of orchestration it seemed to distil some landscape essence from Delius and then Ravel, but flecked its own distinctive palette across the orchestra. This involved luxuriant writing for strings and piquant interplay of woodwind. The piece, though joyous, also moved between light and shade in a dreamy landscape. As Edward Seckerson wrote twenty years ago, this is “music which is dream-like but precisely remembered”.
The final work was the substantial Symphony No 7, Angel of Light (1994). This work presented some startling and thrilling invention, notably the piquant interplay between brass and percussion (trombone and xylophone). The second movement - Molto allegro – was a knockout with enlarged brass summoning the dead, almost like a glittering arc angel, while the stomp of Bruckner was discernible in the repetition of motifs. The first movement – Tranquillo - was occasionally sluggish in invention and pacing, but Rautavaara always creates an arc of musical thought that returns us to recognisable thematic material and closes this the longest movement with sustained grace. Again, the delicate touch and musical thought bought echoes of Delius to mind as well as some of the suggestive seascapes of Bax. The slow movement - Come un Sogno - was tender and lyrical pointing to a dream world flecked by northern lights. The clarinet roulades, trilling flute like, were particularly arresting. The movement did not, however, carry any deep cumulative weight. The final movement – Pesante Cantabile - was full of tension and an inexorable rise towards the firmament with an array of brass proposing various heavenly chorales - the tuba almost playing a contra dance in this heavenly summons. The wide-ranging percussion flecked the score with gilded sounds. The roiling sound world emerging from the orchestra seemed to summon memories of the galvanic music that Sibelius wrote for his incidental music to Shakespeare’s Tempest (1925-26). This is a finely crafted symphony – with a discernible and lovable soundworld – and in its remembered visions seems to gently touch the infinite.
Overall, this was a fine concert for the somewhat sparsely populated schedule of classical music that the Sydney Festival offers.
Sydney Symphony Orchestra – Sydney Recital Hall, Angel Place – January 11, 2017