Pictures from Finland
Madetoja Music High School Girls’ Choir, Soma Ensemble
Oulu Sinfonia/Rumon Gamba,
rec. 2024, Madetoja Concert Hall, Oulu, Finland
Reviewed as lossless download
Chandos CHAN20401 [63]
My colleague Bob Stevenson has written a comprehensive review of this recording, to which I will add my relatively brief thoughts, corresponding in most part to what Bob has said.
The new release is a follow-up to the 2023 Overtures from Finland with the same performers (review ~ review). Some of you may already have a 2007 Ondine recording with the same title (ODE11132), but only two of the tracks are in common, two of the four movements of Palmgren’s suite that provides the title for each recording.
Palmgren’s suite, its four movements depicting scenes from the seasons (if you are happy to see a folk minuet as standing in for summer), is an excellent opener to the recording, with plenty of colour and contrast, and none of the four outstaying its welcome.
Kajanus’s second Finnish Rhapsody is the only nineteenth century work in the program, and it certainly sounds “older” than the others. It perhaps lacks the musical ideas to fill its almost ten minutes, but has some lovely scoring for the winds. His Adagietto for strings is much more restrained, but one might question what picture it is portraying.
Leevi Madetoja was born in Oulu, so it is appropriate that this recording, using ensembles from his birthplace, includes two of his works. His Suite pastorale comprises four brief movements, originally written for piano and orchestrated by the composer, and are entertaining in the moment without promising more extended engagement. The inclusion of his Marian Murhe (Mary’s sorrow) – the sole choral work on the recording – is a surprising choice. Yes, it is from Finland, and depicting a scene, but amongst the pastoral and seasonal images, it seems an awkward fit, and placing it immediately after the Kajanus Rhapsody makes for an uncomfortable gear change. I did wonder whether its inclusion was a way of providing some exposure for the two Oulu-based choirs involved, who sing very well.
The Sibelius piece combines two distinctly different episodes from incidental music written for his brother-in-law Arvid Järnefelt’s play Kuolema (from which Valse triste also derives). Neither of them are prime Sibelius and joining together doesn’t improve matters; indeed, it is perhaps the least interesting on the recording.
Väinӧ Raitio is probably the least known of the five composers, but it may be that his two works are the most distinctive. The Idyll is quite definitely idyllic with delightfully delicate scoring and the surge in intensity provides it with a forward motion that some of its ilk lack. The Scherzo for a domestic cat portrays its play and sleep very well.
Production values are all one expects from this label, and the Oulu Sinfonia play very well. Oulu is a city in northern Finland, with a population of just over 200,000. That a city of such modest proportions can support such a fine orchestra, choir and a music school says much about the attitude of the country to music. Last week I attended a NZSO concert superbly conducted by Emilia Hoving, another in the seemingly inexhaustible production line of Finnish conductors.
I’ve certainly enjoyed this, without being entirely convinced by some of the programmatic choices, but as Bob Stevenson concluded, none of the works are sufficiently memorable to make them frequent listens.
David Barker
Previous review: Bob Stevenson (July 2025)
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Contents
Robert Kajanus (1856–1933)
Adagietto for string orchestra (1913)
Suomalainen Rapsodia No.2, Op.8 (1886)
Leevi Madetoja (1887–1947)
Suite Pastorale, Op.34 (1933)
Marian Murhe, Op.27/2 (1917)
Väinӧ Raitio (1891–1945)
Idyll for orchestra (1938)
Scherzo: “Felis Domestica” (1935)
Selim Palmgren (1878–1931)
Aus Finnland (Four Symphonic Pictures), Op.24 (1904)
Jean Sibelius (1865–1957)
Kurkikohtaus (Scene with Cranes), Op.44/2 (1906)
