Munich Philharmonic: Rautavaara / Salonen / TchaikovskyDima Slobodeniouk (conductor), Olli Mustonen (piano)
Dima Slobodeniouk conducts a programme full of Nordic dream images and winter landscapes: Much of Einojuhani Rautavaara’s Piano Concerto No 3 exudes tranquillity and mysticism. One could almost believe that it was written next to a cosy fire in an idyllic chalet on a snowy night.
Dima Slobodeniouk conducts a programme full of Nordic dream images and winter landscapes: Much of Einojuhani Rautavaara’s Piano Concerto No 3 exudes tranquillity and mysticism. One could almost believe that it was written next to a cosy fire in an idyllic chalet on a snowy night.
The Finnish pianist Olli Mustonen, recently acclaimed for his recording of this work, returns to the Munich Philharmonic as soloist with Gift of Dreams. That sinister, demonic side of night that can rob us of sleep inspired Rautavaara’s student Esa-Pekka Salonen to write his orchestral work Insomnia. Using a large orchestral body and the magic if sound, it describes the nocturnal disquietude that only the dawn can dissolve.
Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No 1, by contrast, is conciliatory and soothing – a profession of love to the Russian winter, with its horse-drawn sleighs, pale winter sunlight and frost flowers on window panes.
Programme
- Einojuhani Rautavaara: Piano Concerto No 3, Gift of Dreams
- Esa-Pekka Salonen: Insomnia for orchestra
- Pyotr I. Tchaikovsky: Symphony No 1 in G minor, Op 13 Rêverie d’hiver (Winter Daydreams)
