Rautavaara & Martinů: Piano Concertos No. 3

Album review

The program on this BIS release is a fresh one, and the album's success on sales charts attests to its attraction. The music of Einojuhani Rautavaara is almost always described in Scandinavian terms, with whatever Nordic landscape terms may spring to mind for the writer, but that is just one strand of his style. He might be thought to have little in common with Bohuslav Martinu, who wasn't Scandinavian at all, but pianist Olli Mustonen deftly shows their kinship. What is best about them is that neither can be classified according to the "-isms" that have so bedeviled listeners when it comes to 20th century music. The styles of both draw on and resynthesize discoveries of the past. Especially notable here is the Piano Concerto No. 3 of Martinu, which is less popular than his first two. Much of it is Brahmsian, but the rhythmic pulsations of Stravinsky are never far away, and there is nothing nostalgic about it. The combination coheres in a finale that is as infectious as anything else of the postwar period when it was written, and the work will be new to many listeners. Stravinsky is also an underestimated influence on Rautavaara, whose dry planes of sound would otherwise not sound as vivid as they do. Mustonen and the Lahti Symphony Orchestra, under conductor Dalia Stasevska, handle everything cleanly, and the Martinu finale is a real joy. BIS' sound from Sibelius Hall in Lahti is superb. This release made classical best-seller charts in the summer of 2023.

© James Manheim /TiVo