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Cover: Einojuhani Rautavaara – Cantus Arcticus · Symphonies Nos. 4 & 5

Einojuhani Rautavaara

Cantus Arcticus

Symphonies Nos. 4 & 5

Leipzig RSO
Max Pommer, conductor

ODE 747-2 · CD · October 1998

Buy / listen

Track listing

8 tracks · 65:10

Listen to samples on selected tracks.

Einojuhani Rautavaara

  1. Cantus Arcticus - Concerto for Birds and Orchestra (1972) 17:10
  2. 1 I. The Bog 6:48
  3. 2 II. Melancholy 3:51
  4. 3 III. Swans Migrating 6:35
  5. Symphony No. 4 "Arabescata" (1962) 16:33
  6. 4 I. 3:07
  7. 5 II. 5:00
  8. 6 III. 2:58
  9. 7 IV. 5:19
  10. 8 Symphony No. 5 (1986) 31:32

About this recording

This CD features one of the most frequently performed Finnish orchestral works of all time, Cantus Arcticus - Concerto for Birds and Orchestra by Einojuhani Rautavaara, which is coupled with Symphonies Nos. 4 and 5.

This release is the second volume in a cycle featuring the complete symphonies by Finnish composer Einojuhani Rautavaara. The recordings were made in Leipzig in 1989/1990, with the Leipzig Radio Symphony Orchestra led by its then Chief Conductor Max Pommer, and originally released in July 1990.

Features

Booklet with liner notes written by Kalevi Aho, in English, German and Finnish

Press

Few contemporary symphonic composers deserve as high acclaim as Einojuhani Rautavaara. (...) Not since the Sallinen Third Symphony have I been as impressed with a new symphony as I am with No. 5. A truly great masterpiece.
Lewis M. Smoley, American Record Guide, July/August 1991

Rautavaara (...) vermag mit allen stilistischen Mittlen (...) seinen Werken eine suggestive Anschaulichkeit zu geben. (...) Das Leipziger Radio-Symphonie-Orchester unter Max Pommer musiziert auf allerhöchstem Niveau.
Giselher Schubert, Fono Forum, April 1991

Devant ce disque remarquable, on ne peut que souhaiter que Pommer nous donne à entendre d'autres partitions de ce grand musicien.
Franck Mallet, Le Monde de la Musique/Télérama, Mars 1991

The artists

Max Pommer

Max Pommer was born in Leipzig in 1936. His international breakthrough as a conductor came with the "New Bach Collegium Musicum", which he founded 1978 and brought to international recognition. The recordings made by this ensemble received international awards and were well known in Europe and the USA long before the German reunification.

Full biography

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