...forthcoming from cpo, with the Turku Philharmonic Orchestra (Finland) conducted by Ari Rasilainen:
https://www.prestomusic.com/classical/products/9778002--erkki-melartin-symphonies-5-6
Great news! There is a decent recording of the sixth by Jussi Jalas with the Finnish RSO, but it's ancient at this point (sound's not bad, however), and the Grin is little more than adequate. But it's quite different from his earlier symphonies and might not entirely be suitable for this forum – a bit in the same way that Braga Santos' last two symphonies stylistically depart from the style of his first four.
The 5th is closer to being conventionally "romantic" (but certainly not in the eyes of everyone), and here Grin's more in his element. I also have a performance with Klaus Mäkelä and the Turku Phil, but for the life of me don't remember where I got it.
I'll be purchasing the CD as soon as it becomes available. I really rate Melartin: I find this music enormously exciting.
Oh, so do I, the more so because you can see a very clear development in his style, and the music grows from crypto-Sibelius (The Wedding in Pohjola, 1902) to ever more individual forms of expression. It is rarely what I'd call confident, though, and always seems to be searching. A good example, and possibly my favorite of his works, is the Third Symphony (F major, 1907). There is a terrific performance of it by the Finnish RSO under Sakari Oramo (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CgLRS_sw5oA&t=2258s&pp=ygUObWVsYXJ0aW4gb3JhbW8%3D).
I don't listen to Melartin that frequently, but that's an uplifting and powerful performance of Melartin's Third by Oramo, Ilja, thanks for the link. I suppose comparisons between Melartin and Sibelius are both inevitable and not particularly helpful but, only knowing his symphonies from Grin's cycle for Ondine, I've always found them attractive, but rather diffuse and unfocussed works, compared with Sibelius'. This performance by Oramo is so much more persuasive, so is Grin's cycle as a whole doing Melartin a disservice? I see you describe his performance of the Third in it as "barely adequate", Ilja.
The notes appended to the Oramo recording shed some light on what has been going on with editions of Melartin's symphonies and perhaps explain Grin's inadequacies:
"The Melartin Society's new performing edition of the Third Symphony differs remarkably from the version adopted by Leonid Grin for his well-known and much loved 1990's recording with the Tampere Philharmonic. It's around ten minutes longer, much of the new material seemingly in the first movement. Throughout the work instrumentation is more detailed, complex, sophisticated, ambitious, original. There are points in the "Grin Version" that seemed curiously weak or disjointed ~ now they are complete as originally intended, they make perfect sense, raising the symphony to an even higher level. Apparently the Third Symphony needed rather less reconstruction work than the others, suggesting other symphonies are going to sound very different indeed!
"MELARTIN SOCIETY NEW EDITIONS....
In 2006, the Erkki Melartin Society launched an editing and clean-copying project for Melartin's symphonies. The aim was to promote their performing, and help them become a living part of the music culture in Finland. Besides the works of Jean Sibelius, the public of today should be given a possibility of hearing the more lyrical symphonic music of Melartin, which has been more influenced by the Finnish folk songs, the Finnish scenery, and the idyll of summer.
"The editing and clean-copying project has also the objective of facilitating the work of symphony orchestras, since the autograph scores and handwritten orchestral parts have mistakes, incoherencies and interpretation problems. Until now, orchestras and conductors have made a considerable effort in turning the contents of sometimes unreadable photocopies of Melartin's scores into performable shape. In addition, the works have sometimes been radically shortened in recordings and historical radio broadcasts. Therefore, it has been considered important to produce the orchestral materials in the forms in which the composer has originally written them".
This old post (https://www.unsungcomposers.com/forum/index.php?topic=2985.0) here at UC also refers to Oramo's performance and the planned new edition of Melartin's symphonies.
I always think of the Grin recordings in the same vein as the Shestakov recordings of the Bendix symphonies. To be honest, that doesn't do justice to them; they aren't that awful. However, they do suffer from lackluster playing, muddy sound and balance issues (the brass section all but disappears at times) and what appears to be a general lack of vision on the part of the conductor. Listen to the Grin and the Oramo recordings of the 3rd symphony in sequence, and it's as if a veil is lifted: structures become clearer, the sonics are suddenly transparent and full, and there's a real sense of direction. I have high expectations for these new recordings, and hopefully we can expect new recordings of nos. 1, 2 and 4 in due time.
I don't know of any set as poor as Bendix/Shestakov, but Ilja's right - we certainly need a better complete cycle of the Melartin Symphonies. Maybe we'll get them from Rasilainen, although there's no current indication that Nos.5 & 6 constitute volume 1.
Back in 20/09/2024 britishcomposer posted here that a 2nd volume was intended also (or perhaps has already been recorded) with symphony #3 and the Lyric Suite. (And perhaps more to come, but at least that volume...)
The CD's out (in Germany) on 19th June:
https://www.jpc.de/jpcng/cpo/detail/-/art/erkki-melartin-symphonien-nr-5-6/hnum/11165038
Hearing the excerpts, this is something to really look forward to.
July's shortlist of cpo new releases (https://www.jpc.de/jpcng/cpo/home) (bottom of page, cpo im Überblick) is finally out, and the Melartin is on it. (Ok, not July's list, since the Melartin was issued four days ago, but one gets the idea. The list also contains some other items of great interest though mostly not within this group's remit.)
My copy's on its way from jpc. More when it arrives...
I listened to this yesterday evening, and this morning again, and it's a great recording that really makes this music shine. No. 5 is contemporaneous with Sibelius' 5th (1915) and almost with Nielsen's 4th (1916), and the 6th is from the same year as Sibelius' 7th (1924) and a year before Nielsen's 6th (1925), and he clearly is part of the same Nordic tradition during this period, even if his influences lie elsewhere. However, he remains more fluid and mellow, and never comes close to Nielsen's later spikiness. What they share, however, is a reductive approach to traditional romantic musical language. We sometimes return to earlier Melartin, and particularly in the finale I thought I heard echoes of Melartin's 3rd, and of Sibelius 2nd and 5th symphonies. Could just be me.
I'll disregard the Grin recordings, but there's an interesting earlier live recording of No. 5 with the same Turku Phil under Klaus Mäkelä that I have (although I don't know where I got it, alas). It is rather predictably very similar to the new recording with Ari Rasilainen, but here the orchestra sounds much smoother and the recording is of course much better. In the case of the 6th, the only recording of note I know of is an older one with the Finnish National SO under Jussi Jalas. Jalas uses more relaxed tempi than Rasilainen does, but unless I'm mistaken (I didn't revisit the Jalas explicitly) this is where the difference in editions makes itself heard. This is quite a dynamically complex score, and I think Rasilainen's alertness does it better justice than Jalas more languid approach.
Certainly worth a buy if you like Nordic romantics. For the doubters, you may sample the whole thing on YouTube (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U6Uov4CDi1s&list=OLAK5uy_kBbuukj0bUVvP6oesWvkiwhDj5Jc14oho).
I think this is a terrific recording. I hope it puts Melartin's symphonies on the map.
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.
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.
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?
Quote from: Alan Howe on Wednesday 25 June 2025, 15:21A 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.
Quote from: Ilja on Wednesday 25 June 2025, 15:57the finale is an odd beast
Nothing like as odd as the last three movements of Nielsen's 6th, though...
Ehm yes. I did try, but Nielsen never clicked for me.
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...
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.)
And he was right.
Well, he didn't agree with you. I should say "having had"; by the time of the 2nd edition he had changed his mind.
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...
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)