Oulu Symphony Orchestra & Arvo Volmer - Madetoja: Orchestral Works, Vol. 2 (CD)

Release Date: 01/01/99

The Symphony is compact and extremely accessible but without the emotional breadth of the Second Symphony. It is warmed

The Symphony is compact and extremely accessible but without the emotional breadth of the Second Symphony. It is warmed and chilled by currents familiar from Sibelius's Karelia and the stormy clenched fist of the First Symphony and, strikingly, from Howard Hanson's Second Symphony.The spry little overture is pleasing and cleanly orchestrated even if the ideas are not strongly defined. The suite's four movements are pretty trifles, expectedly more nationalistic but not at all ambitious. They rush lightly, dream contentedly; Sibelian idylls each one. The Waltz that tops off the Pastoral Suite is Gallic and rather at odds with the rest. The Scenes are taken from the 1930s film 'The Struggle for the Homestead' and their pastoral credentials are a facsimile of those for the suite. The Sibelian wind writing in the Sunday Morning movement is unmistakable and a delight comparable to the innocent country suites of Dane, Ludolf Nielsen (on Da Capo). I do not recall earlier recordings of these two agreeable light confections.Beautifully performed and recorded collectors will want to add this disc to their Chandos and Finlandia discs.Rob Barnett