New Madetoja

[anssik]

Ondine has recently released a new recording of Leevi Madetoja's second symphony (op- 35; 1916-18) by John Storgårds and Helsinki Philharmonia; the disc includes two other works by the young composer, Kullervo (op. 15) and Elegy (op. 4/1). I haven't heard the disc yet, but a critic writes quite positively about it, saying that the symphony is given a fuller and more assured performance than the one in Madetoja's complete orchestral works by Arvo Volmer and Oulu Symphony Orchestra (Alba). Hopefully, we'll get the other two symphonies as well.

[petershott@btinternet.com]

I'm going to take a little more persuading than "a critic writes quite positively about it" - especially since you also tell us you "haven't heard the disc yet".

And fortunate is Madetoja for he is hardly 'unsung'. I have on my shelves 2 or 3 recordings of the symphonies, all of the published music for piano, 2 recordings of each of the 2 operas, the ballet, and most of the orchestral music. Most of the composers in which we're interested on the forum don't have anything like that advocacy. I do hope you enjoy the new disc when you get it - but on no account take Volmer to the S/H shop for it is rather a good disc!

[TerraEpon]

The average classical music lover will have never heard of Madetoja. I don't think you can garner him 'not unsung' because a couple companies have championed his music.

[Alan Howe]

He's unsung. Hardly anyone will have heard of him. Sibelius? Probably. Madetoja? Never. Anyway, I'd stick with the Sakari on Chandos: brilliantly performed and recorded - and a cheap 2-CD set containing all the symphonies to boot:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Madetoja-Orchestral-Works-Leevi/dp/B00004W3JF/ref=sr_1_1?s=music&ie=UTF8&qid=1361400982&sr=1-1

[petershott@btinternet.com]

Not trying to make an issue of it....but "unsung" by what criterion? There are currently available recordings of the orchestral works, including several versions of the three symphonies, by (to give some examples drawn from my own shelves) Juha Kangas, Leif Segerstam, Paavo Rautio, Jorma Panula, Jekka-Pekke Saraste, Okko Kamo, Petri Sakari, Petri Sakari (the symphonies & other works on the mid-price Chandos Collect series), and Arvo Volmer (a 5 CD series of the orchestral works on Alba). They are all, in my view, of a high standard.

Then there are 2 different recordings of the opera 'The Ostrobothnians', and 1 of his second opera 'Juha'. We also have the ballet 'Okon Fuoko'.

There is also a very welcome (and very good) 'Complete Works for Piano' - including the Op. 41 'Knoleman puuntarha' (The Garden of Death) that I've come to regard as a minor masterpiece.

We've also got numerous recordings of songs and works for chorus.

Not much in the way of chamber music, because apart from some works for cello & piano there isn't much (so far as I know).

Recordings of Madetoja are routinely reviewed in music comics such as Gramophone, journals such as IRR, and on a number of web-sites. Whether he is heard or not on Classic FM I would not know.

If all that doesn't count as a sung composer, well I'll eat my hat!

True, Madetoja isn't a household name, and I readily grant that the proverbial man on the Clapham omnibus probably hasn't heard of him. Sibelius, Madetoja's fellow countryman who preceded him by a generation (and went on to live for a decade after him), is probably the only Finnish composer known to 'everyman', and then only because of a couple of compositions such as 'Finlandia'.

My point boils down to a simple one: if 'unsung' means 'hardly anyone will have heard of him' then just about every composer apart from Bach, Mozart, Brahms, Tchaikovsky et al becomes unsung, and the word loses its meaning. For example, just clutching one name at random, I doubt if all that many folk have ever heard of Busoni. Or Berlioz. Or Hindemith. Do they thereby become unsung composers? Absolutely not.

Please: let no-one construe this as any kind of 'down' on Madetoja. I admire him enormously, and wouldn't be at all surprised if the new John Storgards CD somehow slips onto my shelves. I'm merely trying to restore some sense of perspective. Without wanting to extend the thread there are other Finnish composers with a more extensive worklist who are perhaps less well recorded than Madetoja and who deserve a bit more of a 'push' (Melartin and Merikanto for example).

[Alan Howe]

Even a fairly extensive catalogue of recordings doesn't make a composer 'sung'. I think most people interested in classical music will have heard of Bach, Beethoven, Berlioz, Hindemith, etc. But Madetoja? Definitely not! As for the proverbial man on the Clapham omnibus, I fear you over-estimate his knowledge: he may able to name no more than a couple of composers...

Actually the vast majority of composers are indeed unsung. That's why there have been approx. two and a half thousand topics discussed on this forum!

[Peter1953]

Peter, I must confess that I might have read the name Madetoja somewhere, but the composer is totally new to me (yes, I'm very average...). Time to listen to some audio samples, just to get an idea.

[eschiss1]

There's some scores of works of his (possibly EU-blocked until 2018, since he died in 1947) at IMSLP. (Interestingly, even the 1931-composed, 1945-published excerpt from his op.65 piano pieces is PD-US since it wasn't registered with US copyright properly...)

[petershott@btinternet.com]

But then, Peter, you have introduced me to more than a few Dutch composers whose music I have come to value and whom I had not known before!