BALLADES & OTHER STORIES / Erik T.Tawaststjerna, Piano / Review

BALLADES

& OTHER STORIES

Erik T. Tawaststjerna, Piano

Alba Records 437

 

Good recordings of Chopin’s four Ballades have become a dime a dozen. These are usually coupled on disc with his four Scherzi, or Second or Third Sonatas, or a combination of late pieces such as the Fantasie, Berceuse and Barcarolle. Veteran Finnish pianist and academic Erik T. Tawaststjerna takes a different route, choosing instead to present the Ballades cheek by jowl with works of four contemporary Finnish composers. The results are a revelation, also a feast for the ears.

 

Chopin’s Ballades were composed with supposed literary inspirations, as tone poems which tell a story. There is a narrative quality, beginning with an introduction, leading to the main body’s discourse, before closing with a rapturous coda. Components of these are mirrored in the Finnish works, whose composers are gradually becoming part of the classical music mainstream.

 

Einojuhani Rautavaara (1928-2016) is arguably the best-known Finnish composer after Sibelius.  His Second Sonata (1970), dramatically titled The Fire Sermon, is his most performed piano work. True to the Scriabinesque title, its three short movements (fast-slow-fast) explore dissonant harmonies and sound textures (particularly tone clusters and echoing resonances), ostinato rhythms while remaining tonal and even lyrical for long stretches. Like the already popular Ligeti Etudes, Dutilleux Sonata and Carl Vine Sonata No.1, this work will soon have its day. With Rautavaara, one finds similar moods and emotions echoed in the Chopin First Ballade that follows, despite being in a totally different idiom. This is how the album works, by alternating disparate works and finding commonalities in shared inspirations.

 

The Jubilees (2000) by Magnus Lindberg (born 1958) were written for Pierre Boulez’s 75^th birthday, Nos. 6 & 3 selected here are the only atonal pieces in this collection, both brief and aphoristic. The Ballade (2005) of Kaija Saariaho (born 1952) was commissioned by Emanuel Ax to be played alongside Chopin’s Ballades, its brooding 6 minutes being the closest thing to a tone poem for piano. The Helsinki-based Canadian-Finnish composer Matthew Whittall (born 1975) is represented by two movements from Leaves of Grass: 12 Preludes after Walt Whitman (2005-2009). These are exquisite miniatures, the mysterious scintillations of On the Beach at Night contrasted with A Noiseless Patient Spider which curiously juxtaposes bell-like sonorities with short sequences of gamelan-like music.

 

As an interpreter of Finnish piano music, Tawaststjerna (the son of Sibelius’ biographer) is a peerless guide. Heard alongside his equally sympathetic readings of the Chopin warhorses, this is a rare album to treasure.