As a quick and unjustly
simplistic overview what we have here
are two Finnish symphonies from the
2000s. Vuori's creative palette is profusely
stocked with the panoply of 20th century
modernism - so get ready for some dissonance
… and much else.
It's all thrillingly
rich music as the First Symphony
proclaims. This is modernism avowing
a debt to the discontinuity and fragmentation
of the Polish 1960s. Moderation comes
in the growling and howling dramatic
element and through lyrical tendrils
that reach out and entwine the episodic
shrapnel. The Lento second movement
recalls the magically weighted and bell-tensioned
textures of Fridrich Bruk. The finale
returns to the glower and wildness of
the first movement. I loved the feral
nature and distancing of some of the
woodwind solos in the finale. Some of
the rhythmic cells suggest ritualistic
dance from Suomi's remote past.
The Second Symphony
was intended by the composer to
be as different as possible from the
Second. It is in five movements not
four. More substantively it is less
densely packed with a dazzle of ideas
so there is a reduced sense of discontinuity.
The neon radiance of the string writing
suggests an admiration for Penderecki
and 1970s Rautavaara modified by respect
for Messiaen. Piano and percussion shudder
through these pages but there is more
time than in the First to gain a sense
of progress rather than the tumultuous
flow of the First. The Appassionato
penultimate movement has, for the first
time, a Sibelian edge with a few Stravinsky
moments as well as truly symphonic grandeur
at 4.15. It is extremely inventive and
is the one track to sample if you want
to get an instant handle on the Vuori
sound. The Lento closes the work
in a shimmer that defies conventional
rounded conclusions.
The Second Symphony
was premiered on 18 November 2007 by
the forces who play it here. It was
commissioned by Hyvinkää.
The First was premiered by Hannu Lintu
conducting the Finnish Radio SO on 1
December 2004.
I hope that we will
now be able to hear Vuori's Bass Clarinet
Concerto (2001) and Alto Saxophone Concerto
(2004) alongside his Sinfonietta Mythic
Images (2002).
The Toccata notes are
typically stylish and full. The authors
are Martin Anderson, Vuori and Pirilä.
It's also a mark of Toccata's attention
to respectful cultural tradition that
there is a luxuriously long silence
between the end of the First Symphony
and the start of the Second.
All this is, by the
way, stunningly recorded and the sound
seems literally to reach out of your
speakers or headphones.
In summary this is
not the easiest of music. It is ritualistic,
vividly spangled, unafraid of dissonance,
revelling in textures and celebrates
through the glisten and shout of percussion.
Like all the Toccata releases it represents
an adventure in sound.
Rob Barnett
Hyvinkää Orchestra/Tuomas Pirilä
