Composers: Details

Einojuhani Rautavaara (born 9 October 1928) is internationally one of the best known and most frequently performed Finnish composers. He is by nature a romantic, even a mystic, as is often apparent from the titles of his works: for example Angels and Visitations for orchestra or his double-bass concerto Angel of Dusk. Despite Rautavaara's label of "mysticism" he is a complex and contradictory figure whose works cannot be categorized in stylistic terms.

At the age of seventeen Rautavaara began studying the piano and later went on to study musicology at Helsinki University and composition at the Sibelius Academy. From 1951-53 he was a pupil of Aarre Merikanto receiving his diploma in composition in 1957. In 1955 the Koussewitzky Foundation awarded Jean Sibelius a scholarship in honour of his 90th birthday to enable a young Finnish composer of his choice to study in the United States. Sibelius selected Rautavaara who spent two years studying with Vincent Persichetti at the Juilliard School of Music in New York and also took part in the summer courses at Tanglewood given by Roger Sessions and Aaron Copland. In 1957 Rautavaara continued his studies with Wladimir Vogel in Ascona, Switzerland and a year later with Rudolf Petzold in Cologne. Rautavaara has taught and lectured at the Sibelius Academy as the professor of composition. Since 1988 he has made his living as a composer in Helsinki.

Rautavaara's earliest works revealed close ties to tradition but also his desire to renew it. They were followed by an extreme constructivist and avant-garde phase (as in the serially organized fourth symphony "Arabescata", 1962) after which Rautavaara turned to hyper-romanticism and finally mysticism. Since the early 1980s, Rautavaara has adopted a sort of post-modern musical language in which modern and traditional elements of varying degrees of constructivism or freedom are combined with one another.

Rautavaara has composed eight symphonies, the most frequently performed of them being the Angel of Light, his seventh symphony. Symphony No. 8 "The Journey" was premiered in April 2000 by the Philadelphia Orchestra under Wolfgang Sawallisch. Other important groups of works include concertos for different solo instruments, among them the three piano concertos, the popular Violin Concerto (1977), the Harp Concerto (2000) and the Clarinet Concerto (2001-02). Rautavaara has also written a large body of chamber music as well as choral and vocal works including All-Night Vigil for a cappella chorus. One of Rautavaara's most popular works is Cantus arcticus, concerto for birds and orchestra, in which the straightforward orchestral part is juxtaposed with the sounds of birds recorded by the composer himself. Rautavaara's latest orchestral works include Book of Visions (2005) and Manhattan Trilogy (2004) (published by Boosey&Hawkes).

Apart form his symphonies the central pillars of Rautavaara's extensive oeuvre are his operas. With Vincent (1985-87) and The House of the Sun (1990) Rautavaara has scored a notable international success. Aleksis Kivi was premiered at the Savonlinna Opera Festival in 1997 and it has been performed in Cosenza, Italy and Minneapolis, U.S.A since then. The latest stage work is Rasputin (2001-2003), an opera about the life of mystic and healer Grigory Rasputin.

More information:
Fennica Gehrman
Boosey & Hawkes
Finnish Music Information Centre
Interview with Einojuhani Rautavaara on the occasion of his 80th birthday (video)

A Children's Mass (1973)
Adagio Celeste for String Orchestra (2000)
A Finnish Myth (1977)
Aleksis Kivi - Opera in Three Acts
Anadyomene (Adoration of Aphrodite) (1968)
An Epitaph for Béla Bartók (1986)
Angels and Visitations (1978)
Apotheosis (1996)
A Requiem in Our Time (1953)
A Soldier's Mass (1968)
A Tapestry of Life (2007)
Autumn Gardens (1999)
Ave Maria (1957)
Avuksihuutopsalmi (Psalm of Invocation) (1972)
Ballad for Harp and Strings (1973/1981)
Before the Icons (1955/2005)
Book of Visions (2005)
Canción de nuestro tiempo (Song of Our Time)
Canticum Mariae Virginis (1978)
Canto I (1960)
Canto II (1961)
Canto III (1972)
Canto IV (1992)
Concerto for Birds and Orchestra "Cantus Arcticus" (1972)
Concerto for Cello and Orchestra (1968)
Concerto for Clarinet and Orchestra (2001)
Concerto for Double Bass and Orchestra "Angel of Dusk" (1980)
Concerto for Flute and Orchestra "Dances with the Winds" (1975)
Concerto for Harp and Orchestra (2000)
Concerto for Organ, Brass Quintet and Symphonic Wind Orchestra "Annunciations" (1977)
Concerto for Piano and Orchestra No. 1 (1969)
Concerto for Piano and Orchestra No. 2 (1989)
Concerto for Piano and Orchestra No. 3 "Gift of Dreams" (1998)
Concerto for Violin and Orchestra (1977)
Credo (1972)
Die erste Elegie (The First Elegy)
Die Liebenden (The Lovers) (1958-59/1964)
Die Liebenden - Song cycle for voice and string quintet (1959/arr. 2000)
Divertimento (1953)
Ehtoohymni (Evening Hymn) (1972)
Einojuhani Rautavaara in conversation with Vladimir Ashkenazy
Elämän kirja (A Book of Life) (1972)
Etudes, Op. 42
Fünf Sonette an Orpheus (Five Sonnets to Orpheus) (1955-56/1960)
Garden of Spaces
Guds väg (God's Way) (1964/2003)
Halavan himmeän alla (In the Shade of the Willow) (1998)
Hallin Janne (Janne of Halli) (1973)
Hammarskjöld-fragment (Hammarskjöld Fragment) (1975)
Herran Rukous (The Lord's Prayer) (1973)
Hommage à Kodály Zoltán (1982)
Hommage à Liszt Férenc (1989)
Hymnus (1998) for trumpet and organ
Icons, Op. 6
Iltarukous (Evening Prayer) (1953)
Independence Fanfare (1992)
Isontalon Antti ja Rannanjärvi (Antti Isotalo and Rannanjärvi) (1973)
Joulun virsi (Christmas Hymn) for male choir (1953)
Joulun virsi (Christmas Hymn) for mixed choir (1953/1978/1995)
Kaksi psalmia (Two Psalms) for male choir (1968/1971)
Kaksi psalmia (Two Psalms) for mixed choir (1968)
Katedralen (The Cathedral)
Kettu ja sairas kukko (The Fox and the Sick Cockerel) (1975)
Lähtö (Departure)
Lauluja (The Singer) (1956)
Legenda (Legend) (1985)
Lehdet lehtiä (Leaves are Leaves) (1985)
Lintukoto (Isle of Bliss) (1995)
Lorca Suite
Ludus verbalis
Magnificat (1979)
Manhattan Trilogy (2004)
Marjatan jouluvirsi (Marjatta's Christmas Hymn) (1995)
Missa Duodecanonica (1963)
Morsian (The Bride)
Nattvarden (Communion) (1963)
Neljä laulua Aleksis Kiven runoihin (Four Songs to Poems by Aleksis Kivi) (1998/2005)
Neljä romanssia oopperasta Rasputin (Four Romances from the Opera Rasputin) (2003/2006)
Neljä serenadia (Four Serenades) (1978)
Nirvana Dharma
Och glädjen den dansar (With the Joy We Go Dancing)
Octet for Winds (1962)
On the Last Frontier
Ostrobothnian Polska (1993)
Pelimannit (The Fiddlers), Op. 1 (1952)
Playgrounds for Angels (1981)
Praktisch Deutsch
Rakkaus ei koskaan häviä (Charity Never Faileth) (1983)
Rasputin - Opera in Three Acts
Sommarnatten (Summer Night)
Sonata No. 1, Op. 50 "Christus und die Fischer"
Sonata No. 2, Op. 64 "The Fire Sermon"
String Quartet No. 1 (1952)
String Quartet No. 2 (1958)
String Quintet (1997) "Unknown Heavens"
Suite for Strings (1952)
Syksy virran suussa (Autumn at the Rivermouth) (1965/1995)
Symphony No. 1 (1955-56/1988)
Symphony No. 1 (1956/1988/2003)
Symphony No. 2 (1957/1984)
Symphony No. 3 (1961)
Symphony No. 4 "Arabescata" (1962)
Symphony No. 5 (1986)
Symphony No. 6 "Vincentiana" (1992)
Symphony No. 7 "Angel of Light" (1994)
Symphony No. 8 "The Journey" (1999)
Tarantará (1976) for Solotrumpet
The House of the Sun - Opera in Two Acts
The Myth of Sampo
Thomas - Opera in Three Acts
Three Songs from the Opera Aleksis Kivi (1997)
Three Sonnets of Shakespeare (1951/2005)
True & False Unicorn
Two Preludes of T.S. Eliot (1956/1967)
Vigilia (All-night vigil for the feast of St John the Forerunner), for mixed choir and soloists (1996)
Vincent - Opera in Three Acts

Einojuhani Rautavaara
Before the Icons
A Tapestry of Life
Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra
Leif Segerstam, conductor
ODE 1149-2

Released 05/2010

Einojuhani Rautavaara
12 Concertos
Vladimir Ashkenazy · Patrick Gallois · Richard Stoltzman · et al.
ODE 1156-2Q (4CD)

Released 09/2009

Einojuhani Rautavaara
The 8 Symphonies
Mikko Franck · Max Pommer · Leif Segerstam
ODE 1145-2Q (4CD)

Released 02/2009

Einojuhani Rautavaara
Complete Works for Male Choir
YL Male Voice Choir
Matti Hyökki, conductor
Talla Vocal Ensemble
Pasi Hyökki, conductor
ODE 1125-2D (2CD)

Released 10/2008