Einojuhani Rautavaara
Einojuhani Rautavaara (9. October 1928 – 27. July 2016) is internationally one of the best known and most frequently performed Finnish composers. He was by nature a romantic, even a mystic, as is often apparent from the titles of his works: for example Angels and Visitations for orchestra or his double-bass concerto Angel of Dusk. Despite Rautavaara’s label of “mysticism” he was a complex and contradictory figure whose works cannot be categorized in stylistic terms.
At the age of seventeen Rautavaara began studying the piano and later went on to study musicology at Helsinki University and composition at the Sibelius Academy. From 1951-53 he was a pupil of Aarre Merikanto receiving his diploma in composition in 1957. In 1955 the Koussewitzky Foundation awarded Jean Sibelius a scholarship in honour of his 90th birthday to enable a young Finnish composer of his choice to study in the United States. Sibelius selected Rautavaara who spent two years studying with Vincent Persichetti at the Juilliard School of Music in New York and also took part in the summer courses at Tanglewood given by Roger Sessions and Aaron Copland. In 1957 Rautavaara continued his studies with Wladimir Vogel in Ascona, Switzerland and a year later with Rudolf Petzold in Cologne. Rautavaara has taught and lectured at the Sibelius Academy as the professor of composition. Since 1988 he made his living as a composer in Helsinki.
Rautavaara’s earliest works revealed close ties to tradition but also his desire to renew it. They were followed by an extreme constructivist and avant-garde phase (as in the serially organized fourth symphony “Arabescata”, 1962) after which Rautavaara turned to hyper-romanticism and finally mysticism. Since the early 1980s Rautavaara has adopted a sort of post-modern musical language in which modern and traditional elements of varying degrees of constructivism or freedom are combined with one another.
Rautavaara composed eight symphonies, the most frequently performed of them being the Angel of Light, his seventh symphony. Symphony No. 8 “The Journey” was premiered in April 2000 by the Philadelphia Orchestra under Wolfgang Sawallisch. Other important groups of works include concertos for different solo instruments, among them the three piano concertos, the popular Violin Concerto (1977), the Harp Concerto (2000) and the Clarinet Concerto (2001-02). Rautavaara has also written a large body of chamber music as well as choral and vocal works including All-Night Vigil for a cappella chorus. One of Rautavaara’s most popular works is Cantus arcticus, concerto for birds and orchestra, in which the straightforward orchestral part is juxtaposed with the sounds of birds recorded by the composer himself. Rautavaara’s latest orchestral works include Tapestry of Life, Incantations (Concerto for Percussion Solo and Orchestra) and Towards the Horizon (Concerto No. 2 for Cello and Orchestra).
Apart form his symphonies the central pillars of Rautavaara’s extensive oeuvre are his operas. With Vincent (1985-87) and The House of the Sun (1990) Rautavaara has scored a notable international success. Aleksis Kivi was premiered at the Savonlinna Opera Festival in 1997 and it has been performed in Cosenza, Italy and Minneapolis, U.S.A since then. The last stage work Rautavaara wrote is Rasputin (2001-2003), an opera about the life of mystic and healer Grigory Rasputin.
http://www.fennicagehrman.fi/composers/rautavaara-einojuhani/
Opere
Sinfonie
- Sinfonia n. 1, Op. 5 (1956/1988/2003)
- Sinfonia n. 2 “Sinfonia intima” (1957/1984)
- Sinfonia n. 3, Op. 20 (1961)
- Sinfonia n. 4 “Arabescata“(1962)
- Sinfonia n. 5 (1985-1986)
- Sinfonia n. 6 “Vincentiana” (1992)
- Sinfonia n. 7 “Angelo di Luce” (1994)
- Sinfonia n. 8 “Il Viaggio” (1999)
Concerti
- Concerto per violoncello n. 1, Op. 41 (1968)
- Concerto per pianoforte n. 1, Op. 45 (1969)
- Concerto per flauto, Op. 63 “Danze con i venti” (1973)
- Concerto per violino (1976–1977)
- Concerto per organo “Annunciazioni” (1976–1977)
- Concerto per contrabbasso “Angelo del crepuscolo” (1980)
- Concerto per pianoforte n. 2 (1989)
- Concerto per pianoforte n. 3 “Il dono dei sogni” (1998)
- Concerto per arpa (2000)
- Concerto per clarinetto (2001)
- Concerto per percussioni “Incantations” (2008)
- Concerto per violoncello n. 2 “Verso l’orizzonte” (2008-9)
Altre opere per orchestra
- Praevariata (1957, inserita nel 2003 al posto del primo movimento di Modificata)
- Modificata (1957)
- Anadyomene: Adoration of Aphrodite (1968)
- Cantus Arcticus (1972)
- Angels and Visitations (1978)
- Ostrobothnian Polska (1980)
- Isle of Bliss (Lintukoto) (1995)
- Autumn Gardens (1999)
- Garden of Spaces (2003)
- Book of Visions (2003–2005)
- Manhattan Trilogy (2003–2005)
- Before the Icons (2005)
- A Tapestry of Life (2007)
Opere liriche
- Vincent
- Rasputin
- Aleksis Kivi
- La casa del Sole, opera da camera
- Il dono dei Magi, opera da camera
Musica da camera
- Quartetto per archi n.1
- Quartetto per archi n.2
- Quartetto per archi n.3
- Quartetto per archi n.4
- Quintetto per archi “Paradisi Sconosciuti”
- Ottetto per strumenti a fiato
- Hymnus per tromba e organo
- Sonetto per clarinetto e pianoforte, Op. 53
RAUTAVAARA: Rasputin
In fall 2003, Los Angeles Opera opened its season with Deborah Dratell’s Nicholas and Alexandra, with libretto by Nicholas von Hoffman. At that time, company director Placido Domingo, who took on the juicy role of Rasputin, announced that the production would be filmed and prepared for eventual DVD release.
Einojuhani Rautavaara (b. 1928): Rasputin, Opera in Three Acts
Matti Salminen, Lilli Paasikivi, Jorma Hynninen, Jyrki Anttila, Jyrki Korhonen, Riikka Rantanen, Gabriel Suovanen, Lassi Virtanen, Sauli Tiilikainen, Aki Alamikkotervo, Jaakko Hietikko, Finnish National Opera Orchestra, Finnish National Opera Chorus, Mikko Franck (cond.)
That didn’t happen, perhaps, if one may dare to assume, because Nicholas and Alexandra received such scathing reviews. But a DVD has appeared with the central characters of the czar, czarina, and the Mad Monk, in an opera that premiered at almost exactly the same time as the Dratell work. Einojuhani Rautavaara’s Rasputin, performed at the Finnish National Opera, doesn’t have to be compared to the woe-begotten Nicholas and Alexandra to merit praise. The DVD captures an intense, riveting evening of dramatic musical theater and a performance by Matti Salminen in the lead role that manages to capture all the seedy charisma and ecstatic lechery of this fascinating figure. If opera-lovers sadly cannot expect a world-tour of this great artist performing in a fine opera written with him in mind, they must at least obtain the DVD and settle in to experience Salminen’s brilliant work in a operatic stage work of genuine achievement.
The opera only covers Rasputin’s life from the time he entered the life of Russian royal family as they desperately sought relief for their hemophiliac son. He is seen as a dangerous influence by the established order, represented in the opera by two men seeking to marry the czar’s daughter Irina — Dimitri and Felix, whose rivalry is muted by the fact of their own homosexual relationship. As Rasputin’s influence grows, desperation sets in, and finally the Monk’s enemies can find no other option than to poison, stab, and shoot him to death. The conflagration to come reveals itself in a dream of the czar’s, as flames fill the stage.
Rautavaara’s opera, therefore, takes its place in the Faustian tradition as an innovative portrait of a malevolent but charismatic figure and the havoc he wreaks in a society of false piety. And like Mephistopheles, Rasputin makes for a great role for a deep, resonant voice (Domingo’s in the Dratell work was, of course, set higher — if not in true tenor range).
Salminen revels in the both the role’s musical challenges and the character’s schizophrenic nature. For like all truly great characters, Rasputin isn’t faking either his religious ecstasy or degrading himself with his libidinous rampages — they are integral parts of his Falstaffian nature, the ying and yang of a life force beyond understanding or control. The character’s first set piece – a long, dark meditation translated as Evil will sink in the water — quickly establishes Rasputin’s ominously attractive personality, and Rautavaara’s music, while not conventionally melodic, makes for a trance-inducing lullaby, and the audience falls under the Monk’s spell just as the Czarina and her ailing son do.
Like the best opera composers, Rautavaara sees to it that all the major roles get their time in the limelight. Lilli Paasikivi’s czarina begins the opera with a desperate plea for someone to save her son’s life, recalling in its minor key drama Butterfly’s final aria to her “piccolo iddio.” Jorma Hynninen’s Nicholas comes across as a weak man but a loving father, concerned that his daughter Irina might be about to marry one of two very wrong men, while allowing his wife to have her way in terms of Rasputin’s growing influence. Jyrki Anttila (Felix) and Gabriel Suovanen (Dimitri) both exude proper amounts of elegant sleaze as lovers who see Irina as a ticket to power, and Rasputin as the greatest threat to their ambition.
In three acts, the opera runs about 2 and half hours, so with two intermissions probably required, it would be a substantial, and probably expensive, proposition to stage. But this original production has much to recommend it, as smoothly moving walls slide into formulations to quickly signify shifting locations, and the lighting and costuming are of consistently high standards. Hannu Lindholm designed the production and Vilppu Kiljunen directed.
The production of new operas seems to be increasing, which, while healthy by most any measure, also means that some good works can be swept away by the next tide of newer works. Opera houses the world over would do very well to check out this Ondine release and realize that here is a new opera of potent drama and searing musicality, and if Matti Salminen is available, what more could be wanted? Anyone without the patience — formidable, indeed — to await that development should acquire this Ondine DVD soon.
Chris Mullins
Los Angeles Unified School District, Secondary Literacy
– See more at: http://www.operatoday.com/content/2005/12/rautavaara_rasp.php#sthash.O9R7HWWn.dpuf
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