Rautavaara reviews
Nordic Rhapsody
Johan Dalene (violin), Christian Ihle Hadland (piano) (BIS)
Paris (Hilary Hahn)
Hilary Hahn (violin); Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France/Mikko Franck (DG)
Fantasia: Anne Akiko Meyers performs Szymanowski and Ravel
Anne Akiko Meyers commissioned Rautavaara to compose this Fantasia, and it was one of the Finnish composer’s final pieces before his death in 2016. Like many of his later works it’s elegiac in character, with a strong, lush tonal base: a warm cushion of orchestral sound supporting the continuous solo line, which hardly has a rest after the first entry.