Search - Sallinen, Gustafsson, Norrkoping Sym Orch :: Aulis Sallinen: Symphony No. 6; Cello Concerto

Marvelous Performances of Two Marvelous Works

J Scott Morrison | Middlebury VT, USA | 12/29/2009

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Difficult as it is to choose among the multitude of modern Finnish composers, Aulis Sallinen (b. 1935) is my favorite. And his Sixth Symphony (1990) is my favorite of his eight symphonies. (Just as a point of reference, it is not generally considered by others to be among his best symphonies, but I'm the guy who loves Mahler's Seventh Symphony above them all, so perhaps one could take that to indicate my tastes are, ahem, unusual.) The Sixth has been recorded before on BIS Sallinen: Symphonies 2 & 6/Sunrise Serenade conducted by the man who led the première, Okku Kamu. And it was that CD that first acquainted me with this wonderful work. Much as I loved (and still love) that performance, this new recording is even better. Partly that is because its Ari Rasilainen has immersed him in Sallinen's music -- this is the last of the symphonies in his complete series of Sallinen's symphonic works -- and he has the true measure of it. Also, he was advised (as was Kamu) by the composer himself when it came time to record it. The Sixth Symphony was commissioned by the New Zealand Symphony and in honor of that, and because Sallinen and his wife had visited New Zealand on vacation, the new symphony is subtitled 'From a New Zealand Diary.' New Zealand has always been partial to the music of Finland's Sibelius -- the country's best-known composer, Douglas Lilburn, wrote music that is very Sibelian -- and indeed Sallinen's music often shows Sibelian influences, especially in his own version of Sibelius's mosaic forms. Although the Sixth Symphony is not a travelogue, it does picture some New Zealand sights and sounds. The four movements are 'The islands of the sounds, the sounds of the islands', 'Air. Rain', 'Kyeburn Diggings', and 'Simply by sailing.' (Kyeburn is an area where extensive gold-mining has been done.) It calls for a huge orchestra and makes much use of a large variety of tuned percussion. There are many passages that sound as if they are dreams recalled through the distorting scrim of reality. There is spikiness mixed with lush string sounds. There are boozy memories of dance tunes. (Sallinen was in a dance band in his youth.) There are often several diaphanous layers of sound. Somehow, using a sort of continuous variation technique, the whole, rather than being a hodgepodge of disparate parts, becomes a coherent whole. This is a work I never tire of. And Rasilainen and his Norköpping Symphony Orchestra give it its full due.



The Cello Concerto (1976) has also been recorded before by its dedicatee, cellist Arto Noras, in a brilliant recording also on BIS. But it is showing its age (and indeed is no longer available directly from Amazon). This new recording, with young Finnish cellist Jan-Erik Gustafsson is very nearly as good. The concerto, also in the mosaic style, has two movements, a very long first movement (20'23) and a short presto-prestissimo finale (5'30). The first movement is contemplative, occasionally sarcastic, with sometimes rapid back-and-forth conversations between soloist and orchestra. Overall the mood is dark -- another Sibelian characteristic, the so-called Finnish gloom -- but this is overturned by the light, sometimes sardonic, finale that reminds at times of Prokofiev although entirely in Sallinen's recognizable voice.



I cannot recommend this disc highly enough. It supersedes the previous Symphony recording and very nearly surpasses that of the Concerto, although I certainly wouldn't want to be without either of them. I am imagining that cpo will eventually put all eight symphonies in a box set and probably at a price break. I, however, didn't want to wait.



Scott Morrison"