Melartin Aino

[Alan Howe]

Well, it just shows: always listen carefully to fellow forum-members! Aino, by Melartin is just glorious (mind you, I still swoon over the end of Act 1 of Schoeck's Venus!) I think what this opera has more than most unsung operas of its period - it was written in 1907-9 - is a marvellous sense of heightened expectancy, which is fufilled in some absolutely overwheming climaxes. And it is marvellously sung and played on the BIS recording under Söderblom - and beautifully recorded, despite being a live performance. Yep, Aino is up there alright...

[eschiss1]

The only Melartin I know still, more or less, is the 6 symphonies, the violin concerto, and one of his string quartets (an early work and the only thing of his so far not to impress me very greatly- including the just as early first two symphonies. Someone convinced me to try out the 5th and 6th symphonies some while back on the heels of an ecstatic review in Fanfare, I think, and I was hooked I do think. Not that it was either his fault or his glory (ok, I imagine he did teach well), but Fuchs ended up with some rather good pupils- though the Oxford Compact attributes some of them to the wrong Fuchs (and has no entry for him, but anyway.) )
Eric

[Alan Howe]

Does anybody out there know Aino?

[M. Henriksen]

Yes I do! Powerful work, and one of many operas from the Nordic countries that deserve more attention.
The recording - well we are getting spoiled with the high standards of BIS..
Have you by the way heard Leevi Madetoja's "The Ostrobothnians" recorded on Finlandia?

Morten

[Alan Howe]

Oh no, not another good opera, Morten! Can you describe its idiom, please?

[M. Henriksen]

Oh no, not another good opera, Morten! Can you describe its idiom, please?

I'd love to describe it's idiom Alan, but unfortunately my English has its limits. I don't know what the word 'idiom' means, and my dictionary didn't give me an answer I could relate to this opera-context.

An introduction to Madetoja's opera perhaps? Please let me know!
A good intro to "The Ostrobothnians"  can be found here (Finnish Music Information Centre):

http://www.fimic.fi/fimic/fimic.nsf/0/0918A6600EC80946C2257535005049CA?opendocument


Morten

[Alan Howe]

Apologies, Morten! I wanted to know what the music sounds like - e.g. like Sibelius, as much of Madetoja's music does, or like Melartin, who sounds more central-European?

[M. Henriksen]

No need for apologies! This is a English-speaking/writing forum, so I just have to improvise, adapt and overcome!

The Ostrobothnians is considered to be a Finnish national opera, although it was completed as late as 1923.
One of the reasons is Madetoja's extensive use of folk-melodies, many of them well known to the Finnish audience.
So, clearly the music is in a typical national romantic vein unlike the more 'international' Melartin as you point out.
If you have a recording of the Ostrobothnians Suite all the music in the suite is gathered from the opera's first two acts.

Speaking of Finnish opera's (which could be a new post on this forum) I'm eager to hear Aare Merikanto's "Juha" (1920) and Selim Palmgren's "Daniel Hjort" (1910).


Morten

[Alan Howe]

I have Merikanto's Juha - it is written in a much more modern style than, say, Melartin or Madetoja (who, of course, also wrote an opera of that name!), so it depends on your musical tastes...

[chill319]

Aino now on order! Thanks, all, for your insights and enthusiasms.

Melartin's Intermezzi, op. 16, published around 1904 (IMSLP says ca. 1910), was probably written at the end of the 1890s. The little set contains pieces that are among the most "honest" folk style transcriptions I know from that period, quite different from Sibelius's derivative if pleasurable miniatures, or Grieg's most advanced chromatic folk settings of the time. Melartin's settings are closer to the attempts of American composers of that period (cultural clients) like Farwell to capture and translate into the European notated tradition something vital and authentic in folk idioms they encountered. In these early works Melartin has little or nothing to do with either Sibelius or Mahler, IMHO. You could just as profitably compare him to Komitas Vartabed,

Please forgive the disquisition above, but the point is a perceived continuity between the early Melartin piano pieces and the snippets I've heard of Aino, a continuity explained not so much by "Who does he sound like" than by what Melartin was trying to permutate and capture in art.

Melartin didn't necessarily plan on being an unsung composer. And while he heard Sibelius, Sibelius also heard him. Not to mention Debussy, Stenhammar and other contemporaries.