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Land of the Midnight Sun Music and Images from Finland MMidsun_booklet.inddidsun_booklet.indd 1 110.5.20060.5.2006 009:22:159:22:15 Land of the Midnight Sun 1 Rakastava (The Lover) (from Rakastava, Op. 14) Jean Sibelius (1865-1957) 3:57 Virtuosi di Kuhmo • Peter Csaba 2 Mélodie élégiaque (from Suite Champêtre, Op. 98b) Jean Sibelius 3:19 Virtuosi di Kuhmo • Peter Csaba 3 Minuet (from Sleeping Beauty Suite, Op. 22) Erkki Melartin (1875-1937) 3:08 Tampere Philharmonic Orchestra • Leif Segerstam 4 Butterfl y Waltz (from Sleeping Beauty Suite, Op. 22) Erkki Melartin 2:02 Tampere Philharmonic Orchestra • Leif Segerstam 5 Minä metsän polkuja kuljen (I Wander Along Forest Paths) Erkki Melartin 1:49 Soile Isokoski, soprano • Marita Viitasalo, piano 6 Rauha (Peace) Ilmari Hannikainen (1892-1955) 2:17 Soile Isokoski, soprano • Marita Viitasalo, piano 7 Adagio (from Clarinet Concerto in E-fl at Major, Op. 1) Bernhard Henrik Crusell (1775-1838) 3:24 Kari Kriikku, clarinet • Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra • Sakari Oramo Five movements from Bagatelles, Op. 34 Jean Sibelius 8 Valse 1:45 9 Souvenir 1:41 10 Danse Pastorale 0:46 11 Reconnaissance 0:42 12 Joueur de harpe 1:37 Olli Mustonen, piano 13 Melancholy (from Cantus Arcticus) Einojuhani Rautavaara (1928) 4:17 Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra • Leif Segerstam MMidsun_booklet.inddidsun_booklet.indd 2 110.5.20060.5.2006 009:22:209:22:20 14 Aamulaulu (Morning Song) Toivo Kuula (1883-1918) 1:43 Jorma Hynninen, baritone • Tampere Philharmonic Orchestra • Ulf Söderblom 15 Sunnuntai (Sunday) Martti Turunen (1902-1979) 3:20 Jorma Hynninen, baritone • Tampere Philharmonic Orchestra • Ulf Söderblom 16 Jo Karjalan kunnailla (The Hills of Karelia) Trad. 2:21 Tapiola Choir • Erkki Pohjola Tapiola Sinfonietta • Jorma Panula 17 Soittajapaimen (The Shepherd Piper) Trad. 1:38 Tapiola Choir • Erkki Pohjola Tapiola Sinfonietta • Jorma Panula 18 Orvon huokaus (An Orphan’s Sigh) Trad. 2:44 Elina Laakkonen, soprano solo Tapiola Choir • Erkki Pohjola Tapiola Sinfonietta • Jorma Panula 19 Summer Night (Kesäyö) (from Summer Pictures from Häme) Väinö Raitio (1891-1945) 2:26 Tapiola Sinfonietta • Tuomas Ollila 20 Herdsman’s Song (Paimenlaulu) (from Summer Pictures from Häme) Väinö Raitio 2:09 Tapiola Sinfonietta • Tuomas Ollila 21 Queen of the Flowers (Kukkien kuningatar) (from Summer Pictures from Häme) Väinö Raitio 3:03 Tapiola Sinfonietta • Tuomas Ollila 22 Lintu sininen (Blue Bird) (from Autumn Song Cycle, Op. 68) Leevi Madetoja (1887-1947) 1:59 Helena Juntunen, soprano • Gustav Djupsjöbacka, piano 23 Tule kanssani (Take My Hand) Leevi Madetoja 2:04 Helena Juntunen, soprano • Gustav Djupsjöbacka, piano 24 Scherzo (from Symphony No. 1 in C minor, Op. 30/1) Erkki Melartin 5:14 Tampere Philharmonic Orchestra • Leonid Grin 60:20 MMidsun_booklet.inddidsun_booklet.indd 3 110.5.20060.5.2006 009:22:209:22:20 inland’s summer is full of light, full of life, full of — an encapsulation of a beautiful yet brief summertime passion and very short. This brief season has been life — is probably one of the most immediately captured time and again in excited and sensitive identifi able symbols of Finland’s summer. Ftones in both music and the fi ne arts. By contrast, the In some of his solo songs too Melartin managed to long and dark winter is mostly ignored in the arts. capture something essential of Finland’s summer. Minä Winter is a time for thinking about summer — the metsän polkuja kuljen (I wander along forest paths), a memories of the past and the dreams of the future. Over setting of a fi ne poem by Eino Leino, is a portrait of a the decades, Finnish composers have invested much time carefree wanderer who cares nothing for the rainfall and feeling in the refl ection of summer, and love is very that statistics declare will surely come. Rauha (Peace) by much to the fore in the summer in Finnish folk poetry, Ilmari Hannikainen (1892-1955) refl ects the serenity literature and fi lm too. and balance of the lucid season. Aamulaulu (Morning Rakastava (The Lover) by Jean Sibelius (1865-1957) song) by Toivo Kuula (1883-1918) is almost recklessly was originally a setting of folk poetry from the Kanteletar optimistic in its contemplation of the sun rising. Sunnuntai collection for choir, later adapted by the composer for (Sunday) by Martti Turunen (1902-1979) shows the string orchestra. The poems trace the encounter between Finnish dolce vita at its most languid. a man and a woman one summer’s night. The expectation, Väinö Raitio (1891-1945) began his composing meeting and separation are painted in elegant and lucid career as a Modernist, but in Kesäkuvia Hämeestä (Summer twilight colours, enhanced by the exquisite orchestration. Pictures from Häme), which he began in 1935, it would The realm of salon music, palpable in Sibelius’s Mélodie be hard to describe him as anything but a full-blown élégiaque and his piano bagatelles Op. 34, is as appropriate Impressionist. Raitio captures the rippling air of a hot for the Finnish summer as a fl ower-print dress. Summer summer day wonderfully, in bright colours dulled by the has historically been a time for waltzes, and later tangos, heat haze. Kesäyö (Summer night) is full of vibrant life allowing Finns to release emotions bottled up during and stealthy encounters, Paimenlaulu (Herdsman’s song) the darker seasons. In his miniatures, Sibelius indulged is a dance to entertain cattle, with a melancholy twist, himself and allows the listener to indulge in a playful and Kukkien kuningatar (Queen of the fl owers) portrays its whimsy that can only occur in summer. In many cases, he namesake in a sentimental violin solo. seems to simply stop and listen to the landscape. Finnish folk songs are frequently melancholy, due to Erkki Melartin (1875-1937) also wrote a number of awareness of the transitory nature not only of summer works that bear a relationship to salon music. The pastel but of other things too. Karjalan kunnailla (On the hills tones of Prinsessa Ruusunen (Sleeping Beauty) bring the of Karelia) is the unoffi cial anthem of the province of fairy tale to life. Its stylized Minuet is like a remembrance Karelia, which was largely lost to the Soviet Union after of the summers of childhood. Perhosvalssi (Butterfl y waltz) the Second World War and which thus is inescapably MMidsun_booklet.inddidsun_booklet.indd 4 110.5.20060.5.2006 009:22:209:22:20 MMidsun_booklet.inddidsun_booklet.indd 5 110.5.20060.5.2006 009:22:229:22:22 Nötö, Nauvo – © Sten Brant MMidsun_booklet.inddidsun_booklet.indd 6 110.5.20060.5.2006 009:22:239:22:23 a source of nostalgia for Finns and particularly for inevitably acquires exotic southern tones. Karelians. Soittajapaimen (The Shepherd Piper) and Orvon Erkki Melartin was a native of Käkisalmi, the ‘city of huokaus (An Orphan’s Sigh) remind us that life can be apple blossoms’ in Ladoga Karelia. He gave his lyrical hard even in summer, and even though the sun shines on and pastoral Fourth Symphony (1912) the sub-title Kesä everyone, everything else is much less equally distributed. (Summer). The scherzo of his First Symphony (1902) is Bernhard Henrik Crusell (1775-1838) was born reminiscent at fi rst of a Brucknerian alpine landscape, in Uusikaupunki in Finland and can be described as but the clarinet solo in the middle section conjures up a Finland’s fi rst internationally successful composer. The Finnish summer landscape, responding to which the low slow movement (Adagio) of his Clarinet Concerto in E strings trace the folk song Ol’ kaunis kesäilta (One lovely fl at major published in 1811 foreshadows a Romantic summer evening). approach to emotion. It is diffi cult to imagine this music Finnish concert music took its fi rst steps in the works being conceived without the composer’s childhood of Crusell and fi nally made its international breakthrough experiences of the west coast of Finland. with Sibelius. The performing arts rose to dazzling heights Slow-movement melancholy also characterizes the in Finland in the latter half of the 20th century, thanks to middle movement of Cantus Arcticus by Einojuhani an effi cient education system and a widespread network Rautavaara (b. 1928). Indeed, the movement is titled of orchestras. Melankolia. The taped and processed calls of migratory Clarinettist Kari Kriikku carries the legacy of Crusell birds nesting in the north in summer refl ect the approach but is also an unprejudiced champion of contemporary of autumn and migration. The orchestral texture, music. Pianist Olli Mustonen has an original touch that breathing the mystery of the trackless forests, underpins makes even the most traditional of music seem new and the birdcalls with sympathy. fresh. Over the past few decades, Finland has produced Departure also seems imminent in the song Lintu an astonishing number of internationally successful sininen (Blue bird), a setting by Leevi Madetoja (1887- instrumentalists and conductors. 1947) of a poem by his poet wife L. Onerva. It is the Listening to the Tapiola Choir can give the listener an last number but one in the song cycle entitled Syksy indication of how important singing is in Finnish musical (Autumn). Finnish composers have been notably reticent education. At the forefront of the Finnish vocal arts are about the erotic dimension of summer, and it is surprising such international stars as Jorma Hynninen and Soile that the boldest composer to address this was Sibelius in Isokoski; young soprano Helena Juntunen is following in Rakastava and the tone poem Lemminkäinen ja Saaren neidot their footsteps. (Lemminkäinen and the maidens of Saari). In Tule kanssani (Take My Hand), another setting of L. Onerva, Madetoja Antti Häyrynen explores the pathways of love in summer, and the music Translation: Jaakko Mäntyjärvi MMidsun_booklet.inddidsun_booklet.indd 7 110.5.20060.5.2006 009:22:249:22:24 uomen kesä on valoisa, elämää kihisevä, kiihkeä Myös lauluissaan Melartin onnistui tavoittamaan ja lyhyt.