Cantus Arcticus was the first piece of Rautavaara’s I ever heard. Our music teacher played it to us at school. While I do have a number of his works on CD, outside the violin concerto, I’m not sure if many other of his works have ever made a lasting impression on me. Now might be a good time to revisit some of his works, though, since I haven’t really listened to him in years, and see if I might find a new appreciation for his music.
Of the Finnish composers, Kalevi Aho has always resonated most strongly with me. I don’t enjoy all of his works by any means, but at least even his pieces that don’t click with me always intrigue and challenge me, making me eventually come back to them. I heard Jaakko Kuusisto perform a string quintet composed by Aho with Elina Vähälä and three others here in my home town back in 2015. It is titled Hommage à Schubert and pays homage to Schubert’s famous quintet (D 956), which they performed before Aho’s work. Both the piece and performance were sublime – one of my fondest memories of live music I’ve gone to hear – but unfortunately the piece seems to have yet to be committed to recording as far as my quick periodic googling has revealed. Hopefully one day.