SEEN AND HEARD INTERNATIONAL

Kuula, Oskar Merikanto, Sallinen, Sibelius, Wagner, Rachmaninoff: Johanna Rusanen (soprano), Ilmari Räikkönen (piano).  Wigmore Hall, London 23.11.2007 (AO)

Finland is music’s best kept secret.  A friend used to joke, “Those long winter nights force you into your soul” :  a good thing, in terms of creativity.  The total population of Finland is barely a third of London’s, yet there’s probably more music in Finland than anywhere.  Apart from Sibelius, Finland has produced many other composers like Melartin, Rautavaara, Lindberg, Sallinen, Englund, Aho, Saariaho and Kilpinen.  Then there are the musicians - Salonen, Isokoski, Mattila, Hyninnen, Mustonen, Oramo, Saraste, Vänskä, Salminen and Segerstam, just to name a very few

This dynamism is what makes the series “Sibelius and Beyond” so refreshing.  At its centre were the complete symphonies of Sibelius, but in an innovative, challenging reappraisal by Esa-Pekka Salonen.  Sibelius may be the towering genius, but there’s much more to Finnish music.  Organised in conjunction with the English Chamber Orchestra, the series has also brought some interesting Finnish chamber and vocal music.

Aulis Sallinen’s first opera, 'The Horseman', or Ratsumies, written in 1975 stimulated the huge upsurge in Finnish opera. Something like 600 new operas have been published in the last 40 years, some revived repeatedly, and not just in Finland.  Tonight, we were privileged to hear the originals from which Sallinen's opera developed, his Four Dream Songs  from the early 1970s.  In many ways, the songs are more effective in their voice and piano version, since without the complicated narrative, the focus is on the strange, mysterious quality in the songs themselves. Johanna Rusanen has sung the lead role of the opera at Savonlinna and abroad, so it was interesting to hear her in the songs, bringing, subconsciously, her understanding of their wider context.   A “man made of sleep”, “full of sorrow” comes to a woman in the night, cold and silent.  Rusanen captures the mood of terror : we hardly need to know that the man is in fact dead and that horrible things will happen.  She intones the last lines with a hollow sense of desolation that communicates even without translation.  Here, it’s paired with the final song in the cycle, which tells of a “woman made in sleep”.  It’s a fast paced song that draws energy from the image of a turbulent stream, which represents the onward flow of life. I’m not sure about the change in song order, or why the crucial song Three Dreams, each within each was left out, as it’s the weirdest and most disturbing song, but the group still worked effectively, ending with the Cradle Song for a Dead Horseman, which unites the hypnotic stillness with an edge of austere gravity.   As the dead man lies on his bier, the voice sings lyrically of summer pastures.  It’s impossible to describe how beautifully the repeated vowel sounds of the Finnish tongue curl themselves around each other – this is a language that sings itself !

It was particularly good to hear Sallinen after hearing earlier classics of the Finnish song repertoire.  Rusanen began with songs by Toivo Kuula, whose deceptively simple settings belie strong feeling. Aamulaulu, or 'Morning Song', is as pure as folk song, short bursts of phrase floating on a simple melodic line.  Rusanen’s big, open vowels gave the sounds added sweetness without overpowering their freshness.   Although Kuula doesn’t over-decorate piano parts, he allows almost Schumann-like moments to infuse Purjein kuutamolla - 'Sailing in the Moonlight': perhaps a sign of where he might have gone had he not been murdered a few months after writing it, at the age of thirty four. Even more colourful is the slightly earlier Paimenet, or 'Two Shepherds', also set by Sibelius.  Perhaps Rusanen was less enthused by Merikanto, for the group of his songs did not come across with much conviction.

Raïkkönnen’s playing  however, came to the fore:  he’s a very interesting pianist indeed and. accompanying song is a very special skill, quite different to solo playing. In song, a pianist must relate to the singer, knowing intuitively when to cover and be assertive, yet never to dominate the voice.  Raïkkönnen’s style is firm and decisive, and I’d really like to hear more of him, perhaps accompanying a baritone with an equally distinctive character. It’s no surprise that he trained with Hynninen and Djupsjöbacka. 

When he played the single, sharp chord in Death Played the Harp, you could “hear” the harp and feel the menacing chill.   The postlude was beautifully played, and full of feeling.  After all, the text tells of a dying singer listening to the echoes of music still playing in his memory. I hadn’t read the text before hearing this song, yet could guess at its meaning simply by listening, so well was the part expressed.

Raïkkönnen also shone in the Sibelius songs and in Wagner’s Wesendonck Lieder. These would normally be star turns for an operatic soprano.  Rusanen’s range is good and she knows how to project, but here she was not showing her full potential. It must be intimidating for any soprano to sing these songs in the Wigmore Hall, where so many of the greatest singers have performed in the past.  Her confidence built up though, and her Rachmaninoff songs sounded more in character. Perhaps in the encore, she showed her true colours, as she threw herself joyously into Sibelius’s Var det en dröm ?  She sounded like she meant it wholeheartedly and it was also a good choice for it reprised the themes of the Sallinen songs which she delivered so well.

I don’t know if the Sibelius and  Beyond series will be repeated, as Sibelius anniversaries don’t come round too often.  Nonetheless, it would be good if the concept continued, because there is so much to Finnish music that we don’t know in this country.  Why does a small place like Finland produce so much music? Lessons could be learned. While music education in the UK  isn’t what it was, in Finland it still  thrives by comparison.  People grow up appreciating how valuable music can be as part of life so no wonder it’s not seen as elitist or alien.  We need more doses of the vitality that is Finnish Music and  heartily, I congratulate the Finnish Institute and the other organisers of this festival for sharing some of their enthusiasm with us.

Anne Ozorio

For details of the remaining concerts in the series, please see:
http://www.sibeliusandbeyond.com/index.php   

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