Finnish classical music - a few recommendations

[sammy]

Okeydokey, for those of you who might be interested... a few of my own favourite recordings that I can recommend:

Sibelius of course You can't go wrong with his late symphonies and the tone poem Tapiola, they are something quite different from the ubiquitous Finlandia... personally I like the Vladimir Ashkenazy / Philharmonia Orchestra set on Decca best, it's nowadays available on two double-cd's

&

...which also include the tone poems, quite wonderful at mid-price. Alternatively the Osmo Vänskä / Lahti orchestra set on BIS is quite good, again, the last in the series (I believe there's a complete boxed set available, or you can purchase the individual discs) including symphonies 6 & 7 & Tapiola takes the proverbial bis-quit.



Rather good are also the Sibelius string quartets, I particularly like this Ondine recording of "Vocess Intimae" (by the appropriately named Jean Sibelius Quartet)



Then something a bit more modern, but fascinating - Einojuhani Rautavaara; I'm new to his music but just lately have been listening a lot to the "Unknown Heavens" Quintet (also on Ondine):



I'm tempted to try his symphonies as well, this quintet was such a pleasant surprise to me.

Hmm... maybe that's it, not that I'm an expert on Finnish classical music anyway (actually I have far more music by British composers ) but thought I'd recommend these all the same... the Decca and BIS albums are likely to be available through Amazon and what have you, Ondine might be trickier outside Finland (?) but apparently they have a web shop, and you can always ask Fuga - http://www.fuga.fi/eindex.html

A good general resource for info on Finnish music is FIMIC's page: http://www.fimic.fi/

Any other recommendations...?

[Rosamunda]

...another source of information is www.fmq.fi

The magazine is published quarterly in English and available on subscription or from a good bookstore (like Akateeminen/Stockmann). Some of the articles are also available on-line.