Einojuhani Rautavaara - Violin Concerto; Symphony No.8 'The Journey'

Einojuhani RAUTAVAARA (1928-2016)

Concerto for Violin and Orchestra (1976-77)

Symphony No 8, 'The Journey'(1999)

Jaakko Kuusisto, Violin

Lahti Symphony Orchestra

Osmo Vänskä, Conductor

Two absorbing musical journeys, both involving the odd aural challenge

Rautavaara’s Eighth Symphony (1999) was among the first major new pieces available as a web-stream before it appeared on disc. Wolfgang Sawallisch’s 2000 première (the piece was written for the Philadelphia Orchestra) has yet to appear on a commercial CD, leaving Leif Segerstam’s 2001 recording to stand its ground firmly in the face of this excellent – but in some respects quite different – newcomer.

Rautavaara’s Eighth combines euphonious nostalgia and echoes of Sibelius with soft-core dissonance, principally involving the strings in the Scherzo but also in the finale. Both conductors offer warm reportage of the score’s more aromatic moments but where Segerstam’s Scherzo (for example) has a touch of savagery about it, Osmo Vänskä’s is more taut and precise, his textures throughout generally leaner. The symphony, subtitled The Journey, is in some respects the most classical work of the cycle so far, and Vänskä’s performance creates a powerful sense of atmosphere (difficult to avoid in this music) with pristine contours.

In the case of the often haunting Violin Concerto (1976-77), contrasts between the soloists extend, in the work’s second half, to partially different cadenzas. Jaakko Kuusisto and Elmar Oliveira (for Ondine) often achieve an ethereal effect, Kuusisto more through eerie double-stopped trills, Oliveira by scaling the upper reaches. Kuusisto builds intensity very much in the manner of the cadenza that links the last two movements of Shostakovich’s First Concerto, whereas with Oliveira I sense that Bartók was more of an influence. I’d say that Kuusisto’s more chaste tone and focused violinistic acrobatics suit the mood of the piece rather better.

Supporting his finely judged contribution, Osmo Vänskä conducts a dramatic and thoughtfully gauged account: the energico second section works especially well. Where in the Symphony I find it hard to choose between craggy Segerstam and well-groomed Vänskä, with the Concerto this more inwardly intense newcomer definitely has the edge.

Gramophone Review