Szmanowski Archive

“Fantasia” = Violin works by RAUTAVAARA; SZYMANOWSKI; RAVEL – Anne Akiko Meyers, violin/Philharmonia Orchestra/Kristjan Jarvi – Avie Records 

by Audiophile Audition | Jan 6, 2018 | Classical CD Reviews

“Fantasia” = EINOJUHANI RAUTAVAARA: Fantasia; KAROL SZYMANOWSKI: Violin Concerto No. 1; MAURICE RAVEL: Tzigane – Anne Akiko Meyers, violin/Philharmonia Orchestra/Kristjan Jarvi – Avie Records AV2385, 48:16, (10/06/17) ****: A beautiful collection of mid-modern masterworks. Even if your only reason to acquire this beautiful and luxurious collection is out of curiosity for Rautavaara’s Fantasia for violin and orchestra then go get a copy—immediately. I admit that, for me, this was exactly my motivation and not due to curiosity. I have been a complete admirer of the late, great Finnish master’s music for over forty years and have never had an unfulfilling experience. Rautavaara’s music has always been a bit unique and hard to describe but for its lush, semi-Impressionistic orchestrations and beautiful slowly unfolding melodies. His early output was a bit more ‘post-Schoenberg’ and, while well-constructed and interesting though the early atonal stuff was, it is virtually all of Einojuhani’s output from the mid-1970s on for which he deserves to be remembered as one of the twentieth century’s great composers. The Fantasia was written in 2015 for Anne Akiko Meyers and is his last finished work, the composer having died in July, 2016. It is absolutely resplendent and evocative of the […]