Einojuhani Rautavaara - On the Last Frontier (1997)

[@LFont]

Under my point of view, Einojuhani Rautavaara is one of the most underrated and unfairly ignorned composers of all the Music's History.

[@dzordzszs]

He is quite a famous composer

[@LFont]

@@dzordzszs Indeed, but other contemporary composers works are by far more performed than Rautavaara's ones. It seems that he is mostly admirated in Finland, because a large part of Rautavaara's recordings have been produced by Finnish orchestras/conductors

[@benji104]

Most famous composers were underrated at their life times. I even believe that the best music arose from the struggle of a hard life (Chopin, Schubert, Schumann, Beethoven,... they all suffered).

[@williamcutter3346]

no counterpoint....just a series of unrelated triads with a tune....I find his music to be very grey and spineless

[@LFont]

@@williamcutter3346 It is true that this piece is more "flat" and, as you've said, "spineless" than other works of Rautavaara, such as Piano Concerto 3, Symphony 7&8 and much others.

[@bordeauxcolor]

He is one of the few modern-contemporary concert composers that I've somewhat liked since I listened him for the first time (in this case, the first piano concerto, that is not even his work that I like the most). Cantus Arcticus is my favorite Rautavaara piece, whose "melody" in the first movement I simply love with all my heart and I like to sing and which harmonic progression I like to play with my guitar. It really could be a soundtrack of a film. This is the kind of composer which style can be recognized as soon as in the first seconds of the piece even if you're listening him for the first time (at least, it's what happened with me). The way he uses EXTREME dissonance with tonal and modal harmonies, with melodies or melodic ideas, with simpler rhythms than what would be expected from such dissonances (frequently combined with outrageous rhythms in many works of other composers), is VERY interesting and incredibly comprehensive from such advanced harmonic language, rather "held back" and unique, even other-worldly...unlike a lot of modern-contemporary concert composers that I've been discovering in the last years, those who probably think tonality is dead and that any hint of tonality is a curse. It's not a surprise that soundtracks are the most successful instrumental/symphonic music nowadays, it's where it's been possible to find more pleasing and less snobbish music, with a better sense of purpose sometimes independently of the image, even when there are extreme dissonances (like what John Williams has been doing for decades mixing or not avant-garde harmonic language with tonality/modality extended or not).

[@JJBerthume]

Well put

[@nicholas72611]

I agreed to an extent but there are so many great contemporary composers right now. Tonality is nowhere near dead.

[@bordeauxcolor]

@@nicholas72611 Nowadays the best composers usually are the soundtrack composers

[@operadood]

Time to listen to Messiaen now

[@bordeauxcolor]

@operadood I didn't like him

[@deadstar4955]

This guy cooked a new flavor of music

[@Scriabin_fan]

I can never get enough of Rautavaara's deep rumbling basslines and his soaring melodies.

[@daveluttinen2547]

Until listening to this composition, I couldn't access Einojuhani Rautavaara. However, this one really took me by the shirt and sat me in my chair. What a magnificent work!

[@pianistluna]

this is BEYOND epic.

[@romanmakarevych4483]

Finally! One of his most substantial works from late period imo, as well as my absolute favourites

[@Fritz1457]

Amazing piece, the harmonies playing together make the listener travel far away.

[@guilhemricard5850]

Omg more Rautavaara, please !! :)

[@Eden_Rubin_Music]

Thank you for letting me find out about this amazing original composer! It's like he has it's own sound!

[@dominikclarke6545]

Listen to the first piano concerto

@@dominikclarke6545 then harp, percussion, other piano and the first cello concertos

[@WEEBLLOM]

​@the violin concerto is also very nice

[@GovernorBroadsideDS]

I also recommend his later symphonies, 5 through 8.

[@Eden_Rubin_Music]

@@dominikclarke6545 yeah I have listened

[@GovernorBroadsideDS]

YES! I've been waiting for a score video of this for some time now.

[@MicoAquinoComposer]

This is such a blessing, thank you so much for uploading more Rautavaara!

[@GuilhermeCarvalhoComposer]

Very nice upload. I find it super interesting how his clusters can sound so VERY different from other clusters around music - especially Ligeti's, to take one who used them quite often during a whole decade. Rautavaara's clusters, at least here, always seem to have a very clear melodic role, there's clearly a more important note in the lot and we can follow intervals between such clusters. Kinda like some of Cowell's clusters in his _Irish Legends_ even though the effect remains very different from that too. Anyway, I'm not always a fan of Rautavaara's aesthetic, personally, but there's no denying the immense quality of the work. I'd say it's a darn good interpretation and recording too: everything is remarkably balanced without loss of weight or force. Excellent musical moment all around, thanks for posting it!

[@jaredoaks]

I love your comments here. Very illuminating and fair. Thanks!

[@GuilhermeCarvalhoComposer]

@@jaredoaks Thank you!

[@ThatOneGuyRAR]

If any composer could have put a lovecraftian monster into music, it would have been Rautavaara

[@saleelulsawarim5758]

More Rautavaara, pleeease!!!!

[@lucabortoluzzi8103]

Awesome! thanks for sharing!

[@GeorgesGondard]

Masterpiece !!!

[@JorgeICovarrubias]

¡Maravilloso!

[@vine2197]

Epic Rautavaara

[@_grahamjacobson]

Both this piece and Rautavaara's Eighth Symphony "The Journey" utilize material from his 1985 opera Thomas, all marvelous works!

[@javierdelapresa]

Splendid use of the orchestral palette. I try to identify a main melody but I guess you thought in terms of sections and fluidity.

[@Cmaj7]

Timbre and mood are generally my focus of attention, but if you're looking for melody in Rautavaara's music, you'll find the same ones across a lot of his pieces haha

[@tropicjam7343]

Reminds me on Germaine Tailleferre harmonies in some places.

[@bernylecuont2116]

Amazing... is posible to get the score?

[@StarlightVoid54]

unfathomably based

[@southfloridaarcheryguy114]

How so?

[@GovernorBroadsideDS]

@@southfloridaarcheryguy114 he beat zewen sama to the meme

[@steveegallo3384]

@StarlightVoid54 -- .....and you're out of your depth....Based!

[@Kije.Jekyll]

Oh god

[@Ramiarcat]

❤❤❤❤

[@doompiano1604]

Finally

[@glenrichardson6396]

So it wasn’t all Blur V Oasis in the ‘90s after all.

[@v1e1r1g1e1]

I can hear the Holst and Stravinsky influence in this. Anyone else hearing the same?

[@pilu1100]

Me too, Holst: Planets. The vocal melody also reminds me a little to John Adams: Nixon in China. Yet it is a fairly unique piece. Too bad I can't like it twice. :)

[@FreakieFan]

No

[@viljanov]

Rautavaara was influenced by Stravinsky

[@Eden_Rubin_Music]

Does the scores you upload are the composer original scores or you transcribe them on your own?

[@ema_argerich]

are transcribed by the Helsinki Orchestra, he alone makes the watermark edit, etc.

[@ZewenShifu]

based Rautavaara