Radio broadcast of Erkki Melartin's opera "Aino" (1909) is available at http://areena.yle.fi/1-4142029
The concert performance was on 27th May 2017.
Aino - Helena Juntunen, soprano
Väinö - Juha Kotilainen, baritone
Jouko - Jyrki Anttila, tenor
Ainikki - Anna-Kristiina Kaappola, soprano
Taina (Mother of Aino) - Jeni Packalén, mezzosoprano
Water Nymphs - Meriliinu Haataja (soprano), Johanna Lehesvuori (soprano), Tuula Paavola (alto)
Finnish National Opera's Choir and Orchestra
Klaus Mäkelä, conductor
Thanks! This is good news.
(... wait. do I have to reset my calendar? That looks like today. Anyhow was just thinking about Melartin in the last few days. I know of the BIS recording (I see I have streaming access to it but I haven't heard it... yet! (Two performances to hear are much better than none; I expect I'll enjoy that too, whether or not it's based on recent critical editions...)))
Oh, sorry, the performance was on 26th May 2017 :)
I was at the performance yesterday and it was truly a splendid evening. More inspired than the BIS recording (which is pretty good). The conductor, Klaus Mäkelä, is very young, born in 1996! This performance was his debut at the Finnish National Opera.
By the way, this year there are quite a number of performances of Melartin's music in Finland. At the end of the June Leif Segerstam will conduct Traumgesicht and Marjatta at Heinävesi Music Festival. Then on 2.8. Korsholma Music Festival has performance of 5th Symphony with Ari Rasilainen. 27.10. (Tampere Philharmonic) and 24.11. (Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra) Hannu Lintu is conducting Traumgesicht.
Will the recording be on their site for a few days at least, any idea? Just listened to the BIS recording this morning (my first hearing of the work- quite liked it!) but on consideration probably should have listened to last night's broadcast instead, given that such things aren't always persistent. (Listening to a 2-hour-ish opera twice in one day is conceivable, but I'm not feeling -that- robust today :D )
Never heard of Marjatta, time for me to look at that database of Melartin's works at (the archived version of?) a Melartin website to see what that is. Intriguing...
Thanks again!
Did anyone record this? It would be good to have it in our downloads archive?
I've got it, but please bear with me for a day or two before I post.
Of course. Thank you very much.
It's now in the downloads, Gareth. I've included a separate intermezzo as I know there are members that are not so keen on opera and perhaps would like to listen to an orchestral excerpt.
Thanks, Colin. I look forward to exploring this rarity.
I also - thank you very much.