Uploaded June 2024 | Updated September 2026, 3 days ago
00:04 1. Elegia
03:58 2. Burlesco
05:43 3. Rêverie
09:37 4. Valse miniature
Itaru Ogawa, piano
Recording from the pianist's YouTube channel: youtube.com/watch?v=8WzeeUnaVUw
Aarre Merikanto (1893-1958) was a Finnish composer, the son of the prominent Romantic composer Oskar Merikanto. Initially influenced by the prevailing national Romantic style at the time in Finland, Merikanto migrated toward a more modernist idiom in the 1920s, drawing influences from Expressionism and developing a strain of non-tonal music independent of the twelve-tone system; in this period, he was - along with Väinö Raitio and Ernest Pingoud - a leading light of Finnish modernism.
Despite moderate success in central Europe, Merikanto's modernist music was never popular with the conservative Finnish public during his lifetime. Discouraged by this negative reception, Merikanto began writing in a more traditional Neoclassical style in the last 25 years of his life and even destroyed many of his earlier pieces. However, his work as both a composer and a teacher at the Sibelius Academy in Helsinki was recognized after his death; he taught many important figures among the next generation of Finnish composers, including Einojuhani Rautavaara and Paavo Heininen, and it was Heininen who reconstructed some of the works Merikanto had destroyed. Today, Merikanto's music is becoming increasingly well-represented on concert programs in Finland, where several of his works have been performed and recorded by major orchestras.
This collection of four piano pieces dates from the late 1910s, before Merikanto's stylistic shift toward modernism. However, they are finely crafted and very individual in their own right, and some of the more chromatic harmonic language already offers hints at his mature style.
As always, if you enjoyed this or any other video on my channel, please do leave a like and subscribe - there is much more Finnish piano music on the way!
00:04 1. Elegia
03:58 2. Burlesco
05:43 3. Rêverie
09:37 4. Valse miniature
Itaru Ogawa, piano
Recording from the pianist's YouTube channel: youtube.com/watch?v=8WzeeUnaVUw
Aarre Merikanto (1893-1958) was a Finnish composer, the son of the prominent Romantic composer Oskar Merikanto. Initially influenced by the prevailing national Romantic style at the time in Finland, Merikanto migrated toward a more modernist idiom in the 1920s, drawing influences from Expressionism and developing a strain of non-tonal music independent of the twelve-tone system; in this period, he was - along with Väinö Raitio and Ernest Pingoud - a leading light of Finnish modernism.
Despite moderate success in central Europe, Merikanto's modernist music was never popular with the conservative Finnish public during his lifetime. Discouraged by this negative reception, Merikanto began writing in a more traditional Neoclassical style in the last 25 years of his life and even destroyed many of his earlier pieces. However, his work as both a composer and a teacher at the Sibelius Academy in Helsinki was recognized after his death; he taught many important figures among the next generation of Finnish composers, including Einojuhani Rautavaara and Paavo Heininen, and it was Heininen who reconstructed some of the works Merikanto had destroyed. Today, Merikanto's music is becoming increasingly well-represented on concert programs in Finland, where several of his works have been performed and recorded by major orchestras.
This collection of four piano pieces dates from the late 1910s, before Merikanto's stylistic shift toward modernism. However, they are finely crafted and very individual in their own right, and some of the more chromatic harmonic language already offers hints at his mature style.
As always, if you enjoyed this or any other video on my channel, please do leave a like and subscribe - there is much more Finnish piano music on the way!
![VASILY KALINNIKOV - Symphony No. 2 (Score Video) [N. Järvi]](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/IFu1RxsVUhw/mqdefault.jpg "VASILY KALINNIKOV - Symphony No. 2 (Score Video) [N. Järvi]
Performed by the Scottish National Orchestra conducted by Neeme Järvi
00:00 I. Moderato - Allegro non troppo
10:18 II. Andante cantabile
18:25 III. Allegro scherzando
26:32 IV. Andante cantabile - Allegro vivo
Vasily Kalinnikov (1866-1901) was a Russian Romantic composer whose often colorful and energetic music drew from Russian folk melodies. For more on Kalinnikov, see my post about him on my blog: https://unknowncomposers.org/2019/03/25/special-feature-vasily-kalinnikov-the-forgotten-russian-romantic/
Written in 1897 and dedicated to the conductor Aleksandr Vinogradsky, Kalinnikovs second symphony is one of his most important works. Although I personally find the melodies of his first symphony most compelling, the second displays a mastery of form and development while retaining the exuberance and orchestral color so characteristic of his style.
Although they have begun to gain prominence in recent years, Kalinnikovs works remain rarely performed among major orchestras outside the former USSR - I hope this score video will be a small part of changing the status quo. You can find the score on Kalinnikovs IMSLP page (https://imslp.org/wiki/Category:Kalinnikov,_Vasily) under Symphony No. 2 in A Major.")
