Einojuhani Rautavaara - Cantus Arcticus: Concerto for Birds & Orchestra

"Finland's senior composer was a student and heir apparent to the great Jean Sibelius, to whom he is inevitably compared whenever he spins out one of his trademark long, Romantic melodies. In the '60s, Rautavaara began experimenting with tape and electronic sounds, and in 1972 he created the remarkable Cantus Arcticus, a concerto where the soloist wasn't human, and wasn't even live. Using tapes of arctic birds that he recorded in northern Finland, he wrote a three-movement concerto where the orchestral music seems to grow organically out of the birdsongs. Winds are asked to retune a bit to accommodate the birds' tuning; melodies take flight majestically and reappear later in slightly altered form, as if returning from a long journey. Rautavaara, by the way, has gone on to further success with a series of "Angel" pieces, like the monumental Symphony #7, called "Angel of Light," and concertos for more conventional soloists." - Emusic

Artist: Einojuhani Rautavaara
Album: Cantus Arcticus: Concerto for Birds & Orchestra
Label: Naxos
Format: LP, Vinyl
Country: Finland
Released: 1999
Genre: Classical
Style: Orchestral

Tracklisting:
1. Cantus Arcticus, Op. 61 (Concerto for Birds and Orchestra): Suo (The Marsh)
2. Cantus Arcticus, Op. 61 (Concerto for Birds and Orchestra): Melankolia
3. Cantus Arcticus, Op. 61 (Concerto for Birds and Orchestra): Joutsenet muuttavat (Swans Migrating)

Einojuhani Rautavaara - Cantus Arcticus: Concerto for Birds & Orchestra