MusicWeb International One of the most grown-up review sites around 2023
Approaching 60,000 reviews
and more.. and still writing ...

Search MusicWeb Here Acte Prealable Polish CDs
 

Presto Music CD retailer
 
Founder: Len Mullenger                                    Editor in Chief:John Quinn             


Some items
to consider

new MWI
Current reviews

old MWI
pre-2023 reviews

paid for
advertisements

Acte Prealable Polish recordings

Forgotten Recordings
Forgotten Recordings
All Forgotten Records Reviews

TROUBADISC
Troubadisc Weinberg- TROCD01450

All Troubadisc reviews


FOGHORN Classics

Alexandra-Quartet
Brahms String Quartets

All Foghorn Reviews


All HDTT reviews


Songs to Harp from
the Old and New World


all Nimbus reviews



all tudor reviews


Follow us on Twitter


Editorial Board
MusicWeb International
Founding Editor
   
Rob Barnett
Editor in Chief
John Quinn
Contributing Editor
Ralph Moore
Webmaster
   David Barker
Postmaster
Jonathan Woolf
MusicWeb Founder
   Len Mullenger

REVIEW
RECORDING OF THE MONTH


Advertising on
Musicweb


Donate and keep us afloat

 

New Releases

Naxos Classical
All Naxos reviews

Hyperion recordings
All Hyperion reviews

Foghorn recordings
All Foghorn reviews

Troubadisc recordings
All Troubadisc reviews



all Bridge reviews


all cpo reviews

Divine Art recordings
Click to see New Releases
Get 10% off using code musicweb10
All Divine Art reviews


All Eloquence reviews

Lyrita recordings
All Lyrita Reviews

 

Wyastone New Releases
Obtain 10% discount

Subscribe to our free weekly review listing

 

 

alternatively
CD: MDT AmazonUK AmazonUS
Sound Samples & Downloads

Einojuhani RAUTAVAARA (b. 1928)
Kaivos (1962)
Hannu Niemelä (Simon); Johanna Rusanen-Kartano (Ira); Jorma Hynninen (Commissar); Jaakko Kortekangas (Priest); Mati Turi (Marko); Petri Pussila (Vanha); Tuomas Katajala (A miner); Kaivos Chorus
Tampere Philharmonic Orchestra/Hannu Lintu
rec. Tampere Hall, 21-24 September 2010
Libretto and translation
ONDINE ODE1174-2 [75:52]

Experience Classicsonline


Rautavaara’s first opera Kaivos (“The Mine”) had a rather long and chequered genesis. The composer began thinking about it in 1957 when he heard a story about miners besieged in the mine where they worked, trapped in the depths of the earth. Some time later when the Jenny and Antti Wihuri Foundation launched an opera competition Rautavaara recalled the story of the rebellious miners and set to work writing his own libretto - something he was to do for all his later operas. The bulk of the composition was done in the late fifties and early sixties. The competition jury chose Rautavaara’s opera for first place, but it was another work that was eventually announced as the winner whereas Rautavaara only received a diploma. This was during one of Finland’s most difficult historical periods, that of the so-called “Finlandisation” during which one had to avoid any all-too-direct opposition with the mighty neighbour. Moreover the political content of the opera was likely to bring memories of the then quite recent and brutally repressed Hungarian Uprising. Nevertheless the then director of the Finnish National Opera took an interest in the work and spent some time with Rautavaara to revise the opera to make it more politically correct. In fact the main change was to make the Commissar into a Prefect and to modify the phrase “Save them from the sickle” into “Save them from ruin”. The opera, however, was not staged then but was broadcast by the Finnish Broadcasting Corporation in April 1963. At the time this recording was made (2010), the opera was still awaiting its premiere in a staged production. In the meantime, however, the composer planned to revise and expand the opera. Actually I have a rather old list of works published by the Finnish Music Information Centre stating that Kaivos was under revision and that the revised version would play for one hour and forty minutes, but the work remained mostly unchanged and the only difference is the change of the Prefect back to a Commissar!
 
Thus Kaivos is a compact and concise work in three short acts that actually tell us all we have to be told without any lingering and going straight to the point. In the first act the miners rebel against the dictatorship of the Party and one of them tears a portrait of “The Leader” into pieces. This may remind you of things witnessed fairly recently. The Commissar represents the Party and, although they have made him a prisoner, the miners obviously still fear him. They need a leader and they think that Simon should be the one to lead them and to free them. After the miners’ enthusiasm has cooled down the priest tries to persuade Simon either to make peace with the authorities or to flee because the revolt would destroy the mine and its workers. Simon believes that he has no choice: “Either they might fail now because I leave them or even if I choose to lead them”. The second act is the dramatic core of the opera. Distant rifle fire and machine-gun fusillades are heard while Marko checks the radio set. The Commissar, his hands bound, and Ira stand apart. Ira moves to the table and turns the radio on and a jazzy tune is heard accompanying Ira’s long scene at the end of which she frees the Commissar. Marko tries to intervene but is backstabbed by the Commissar who tries to escape using Ira as a shield when Simon and the Priest come back in the hut. There follows a quite nervous dialogue between Simon and the Commissar who eventually tries to convince that he is one of the miners which Simon is not. Simon proposes a game to the Commissar. With her back to him Ira will have to guess which hand Simon raises. The right answer will free the Commissar, whereas the wrong one will mean his death. At first she refuses to play the game but Simon and the accusations of the women force her to do so. Simon, however, does not raise any hand till she cries “left!”. Simon then raises his left hand and releases the Commissar. A miner comes in a hurry telling that there has been a breakthrough in the positions and the besieged cannot hold on for long. There is now just one way to escape a new siege. Simon opens the gate leading down into the mine. Ira overhears the radio announcement that the revolt has been defeated and that amnesty is promised on condition that the leaders are handed over. She goes down the tunnel but does not tell anyone of what she has just heard. In the third act down in the mine the Priest serves communion. Ira tries again to persuade Simon to leave with her but Simon refuses. The miners intone a rowdy drinking song that ends up in a din and makes the feverish Marko panic. He and some others will escape but Simon and Vanha bar their way with rifles. They shoot and a bullet hits Ira. The rifle shots make parts of the wall collapse revealing an old tunnel into which everyone eventually vanishes except Simon who is killed by two soldiers accompanying the Commissar.
 
The content of the opera drew some strongly dramatic and expressive music although much of it is atonal and even serial, but quite often more akin to Berg than to Webern. The music is stylistically quite coherent throughout although the composer admits that he had to rely on more traditional music used “as props” required by the dramatic situation. So the jazzy music is heard on the radio and accompanying Ira’s long scene in which she dances in front of the Commissar before freeing him. This episode may remind one of the dance episode in Berg’s Wozzeck because it is part of an important scene in which the almost ordinary music enhances a surreal mood. Ira does not know why she frees the Commissar and has no idea of how her doing so might impact on the later events. The prayer at the opening of the third act and the miners’ drinking song are the only other “props” in this otherwise stylistically coherent work. There are also a few episodes such as the miners’ chorus in the opening section of the first act and the women’s chorus at the beginning of the second act and finally the women’s chorus accusing Ira in the third act that use the technique of the speaking chorus that Rautavaara must surely have inherited from his studies with Wladimir Vogel.
 
I do not think that this reading could be bettered. Everyone sings with utmost conviction. This is a male-dominated opera in which a lonely soprano has to assert herself, which Johanna Rusanen-Kartano does magnificently. Hannu Lintu conducts a carefully prepared and superbly committed performance that does this strongly expressive opera full justice … at long last. The quality of the singing and of the playing is perfectly matched by some fine recording and the booklet is a model of its kind.
 
I have no hesitation whatsoever in endorsing this powerful opera which the composer considers as his best - a finding with which I fully agree. This magnificent release is my recording of the month and will be high up in my list of Records of the Year.
 
Hubert Culot 

 

 

 

 

 


 


EXPLORE MUSICWEB INTERNATIONAL

Making a Donation to MusicWeb

Writing CD reviews for MWI

About MWI
Who we are, where we have come from and how we do it.

Site Map

How to find a review

How to find articles on MusicWeb
Listed in date order

Review Indexes
   By Label
      Select a label and all reviews are listed in Catalogue order
   By Masterwork
            Links from composer names (eg Sibelius) are to resource pages with links to the review indexes for the individual works as well as other resources.

Themed Review pages

Jazz reviews

 

Discographies
   Composer
      Composer surveys
   National
      Unique to MusicWeb -
a comprehensive listing of all LP and CD recordings of given works
.
Prepared by Michael Herman

The Collector’s Guide to Gramophone Company Record Labels 1898 - 1925
Howard Friedman

Book Reviews

Complete Books
We have a number of out of print complete books on-line

Interviews
With Composers, Conductors, Singers, Instumentalists and others
Includes those on the Seen and Heard site

Nostalgia

Nostalgia CD reviews

Records Of The Year
Each reviewer is given the opportunity to select the best of the releases

Monthly Best Buys
Recordings of the Month and Bargains of the Month

Comment
Arthur Butterworth Writes

An occasional column

Phil Scowcroft's Garlands
British Light Music articles

Classical blogs
A listing of Classical Music Blogs external to MusicWeb International

Reviewers Logs
What they have been listening to for pleasure

Announcements

 

Community
Bulletin Board

Give your opinions or seek answers

Reviewers
Past and present

Helpers invited!

Resources
How Did I Miss That?

Currently suspended but there are a lot there with sound clips


Composer Resources

British Composers

British Light Music Composers

Other composers

Film Music (Archive)
Film Music on the Web (Closed in December 2006)

Programme Notes
For concert organizers

External sites
British Music Society
The BBC Proms
Orchestra Sites
Recording Companies & Retailers
Online Music
Agents & Marketing
Publishers
Other links
Newsgroups
Web News sites etc

PotPourri
A pot-pourri of articles

MW Listening Room
MW Office

Advice to Windows Vista users  
Questionnaire    
Site History  
What they say about us
What we say about us!
Where to get help on the Internet
CD orders By Special Request
Graphics archive
Currency Converter
Dictionary
Magazines
Newsfeed  
Web Ring
Translation Service

Rules for potential reviewers :-)
Do Not Go Here!
April Fools






Untitled Document


Reviews from previous months
Join the mailing list and receive a hyperlinked weekly update on the discs reviewed. details
We welcome feedback on our reviews. Please use the Bulletin Board
Please paste in the first line of your comments the URL of the review to which you refer.