RAUTAVAARA, E.: Book of Visions / Symphony No. 1 / Adagio celeste (Belgium National Orchestra, Franck)

Album review

For fans of the music of Einojohani Rautavaara, this disc will be mandatory listening for three reasons. First, it contains the third and possibly final version of his Symphony No. 1. Second, it contains what appears to be the world premieres of the Adagio Celeste and the Book of Visions. And, third, all three works are performed with admirable ability and laudable dedication by Mikko Franck and the National Orchestra of Belgium. Rautavaara's First Symphony of 1955 was originally a four-movement work of neo-Shostakovich tendencies that the composer revised in 1988 by combining the opening movements and dropping the finale and then revised again in 2003, keeping the combined opening movement of 1988, but adding a new central movement entitled "Poetica," based on a song he'd originally written in the '50s. The result is far more persuasive than the unbalanced first revision, with its massive opening movement followed by a slight closing movement, but still a lesser work in Rautavaara's symphonic canon. The following Adagio Celeste for string orchestra is a single-movement work whose title is fulfilled in its slow waves of radiant beauty. The closing Book of Visions is a four-movement programmatic symphony in all but name, with each movement describing in Rautavaara's strong but tender tonal language visions of night, fire, love, and fate. All the performances seem wonderfully suited to the music. Franck and the Belgian orchestra turn in by far the most polished and convincing performance of any version of the First Symphony and their Adagio Celeste and Book of Visions are as compelling as the best recent Rautavaara orchestral recordings. Ondine's super audio sound is clearer and deeper than even its standard clear and deep digital sound.

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