joy & asymmetry

joy & asymmetry is a new recording from the Helsink Chamber Choir and their conductor Nils Schweckendiek.  It consista of music by Finnish composers Kalevi Aho and Einojuhani Rautavaara, although by no means all the texts are in Finnish.

There’s some interesting music on the recording but a lot of it is relatively stately, layered, polyphony.  That’s not exactly unusual for contemporary choral music and if it’s your thing there’s a lot to like her.  I’ll admit though to finding much of it quite soporific.

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Rautavaara – Rubáiyát etc

Rautavaara_Rubaiyat_ODE12742This review first appeared in the print edition of Opera Canada.

This CD contains four recent works by Finnish composer Einojuhani Rautavaara. With the recent announcement of his death they are no doubt among his last and are representative of his final stylistic period in which he abandoned earlier experiments in dodecaphony, use of bird song etc to return to a high romantic style reminiscent at times, inevitably, of Sibelius and even more, perhaps, of Dvořák, though always, always sounding like Rautavaara.

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