Melartin Symphonies 5 & 6 (cpo)

[Mark Thomas]

Completely agree. These performances totally outclass Grin's and have made me appreciate Melartin's music in a way I  never did before. Fingers crossed that the other four symphonies appear in due course.

[eschiss1]

I seem to recall a Fanfare review (or maybe I'm jumbling that with a communication with a friend at the time- this happens.) pointing out some qualities in No.5 recalling (in a good way) Fuchs' teaching (the very effective fugal finale), while no.6 was described as somewhat impressionist(?) by comparison (harmonically maybe, and given that the movement keys advance by step instead of returning to the beginning, there's that too.) I've taken out Grin's recording fairly often (and liking better no.5 or no.6 depending on mood ) but can well imagine getting and preferring this one.

[Alan Howe]

My copy arrived earlier today. I must say that I find Melartin's idiom extremely attractive: it's less obviously Nordic than Sibelius and certainly nothing like as tough as Nielsen. In its own way it's hyper-romantic, even in parts impressionistic, reminding us perhaps of someone like Bax. Rasilainen definitely knows what he's doing with this sort of music and Turku Philharmonic play very well for him: They're apparently a medium-large band, 74-strong according to Wikipedia. A most distinguished release - and very likely the best commercial recording of Melartin symphonies ever made.

Members may be interested in this article about the editing of the new edition of Symphony No.5:
https://erkkimelartin.fi/em/wp-content/uploads/2017/02/Symphony-5-preface.pdf

...and in this article about the much darker, occasionally expressionistic Symphony No.6:
https://erkkimelartin.fi/em/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/Symphony-6-preface.pdf
Shades of Holst (The Planets) or pre-echoes of Vaughan Williams (Job, or Symphony No.4), perhaps?

[Ilja]

A most distinguished release - and very likely the best commercial recording of Melartin symphonies ever made.

No argument about that. The Jalas rendition of the Sixth is fine as well, but the sound isn't nearly as good. Rasilainen is truly a hero of the unsung repertoire, always reliable but also insightful. And he's covered a LOT of ground: a string of Nordic music recordings, but also Hausegger's Natursymphonie and Marques' Symphony No. 4.

I don't disagree that the Sixth is darker than Melartin's other symphonies, but the finale is an odd beast, much more gentle and apparently something of a kaleidoscope of contemporary influences.

[Alan Howe]

the finale is an odd beast

Nothing like as odd as the last three movements of Nielsen's 6th, though...

[Ilja]

Ehm yes. I did try, but Nielsen never clicked for me.

[Alan Howe]

Nielsen's a long been a favourite of mine (ever since Ole Schmidt's LSO set fifty-odd years ago); however, I've never got past the first movement of Nielsen's 6th...

[eschiss1]

Fair enough. Robert Simpson described having a lot of trouble with it, too, for a long time, as I recall (in the 2nd edition of his Nielsen book.)

[Alan Howe]

And he was right.

[eschiss1]

Well, he didn't agree with you. I should say "having had"; by the time of the 2nd edition he had changed his mind.

[Alan Howe]

I'm no expert, Eric, but I remember Simpson's serious reservations about Nielsen 6. Those are reservations I still share today. If I recall correctly, it was Nielsen's descent into subjectivity (arising from the composer's own health problems) that Simpson critiqued. If Simpson later changed his mind, I remain unconvinced. But who am I to gainsay such an eminent expert on Nielsen's music?

Meanwhile, back to Melartin...

[eschiss1]

Actually considering not just streaming but even buying (if only in mp3 form) the new disc (I don't often, but it feels like a -very- good use of gift certificate money later this year), again not because I disliked the Grin recording but because I liked it so much and a promise of an even better version is really tempting. Even at 40-odd years distance in time I still feel some of the associations I have with how I got that disc (a friend seconding a Fanfare review, and the discovery of a striking voice) and also with playing it repeatedly over the years. (And playing it for some friends as one of my relatively few discs of this is what memorably good unsung music sounds like, enjoy)