Einojuhani Rautavaara: Piano Concerto No. 1, Mvt. I

[@TheCarambasam]

Like most people I found Rautavaara's music by sheer accident. How his music is not played on a more regular basis is beyond me. One morning at 5.30am I sat with my cup of tea before rushing off to work and thought I would just have a quick listen to Radio 3. The music playing was Rautavaara's Concerto for Birdsong and Orchestra. I was totally transported to another dimension of time..such wonderful sounds, so different. I was thinking about it all day long then came home and ordered a boxed set of his Concertos. He is one of the best modern composers and the Piano Concerto is one of my favourite piano works..Everyone must try and listen to all of his works, they are all unique in their own ways.

[@JJBerthume]

Marvelously evocative! Definitely modern, while still giving way to the ear's desires. THIS is what modern music should be, not mathematical formulas that have no effect on our innate sense of tonality.

[@Jockolantern]

Awesome anger and intensity pent up in those tone clusters with all the scrambling madness of the left hand amplifying the tonal dissolution-- madness which is only alleviated by those very brief moments of tenderness before either the orchestra's persistent stabbing or interrupting piano tone clusters confuse those attempts at tonality and sanity. As for those furious, frustrated arm-length tone clusters which send off the movement in such exalted anguish-- brilliant. Love this concerto.

[@Sky84rm]

Adoro la musica di Rautavaara, è stupenda!

[@vincentstuart3148]

I like this guys romantic vision, modern yet heart felt.

[@MilanBator81]

what a genius!!! mysterious, deep, eternal music!

[@Casio61]

An utterly original writer - this is brilliant.

[@fnicknich]

Awesomeness. II movement is magic.

[@NanaKwame96]

This is just so magical!!

[@IncaRoad01]

Rautavaara's Piano Concertos are great. I can't help but feel that he was influenced a lot by Bartok's Pianco Concertos in some instances. Check them out if you've yet to hear them.

[@1994nejc]

i love rautavaara music

[@btp674]

@VIDE0DR0ME The thing about Rautavaara's piano writing during the period of this concerto is how well the notes "fit" the hand shapes. He thinks about the piano as a big set of symmetrical groupings in conjunction with hand symmetry. In his 1st and 2nd sonatas you can find more of this bilateral symmetry. Evidence of the sonorities that arise from this symmetrical system are found in both his piano and non piano works circa 1968-1975.

[@MuseDuCafe]

We can add this to that list of piano concerti which open with the solo instrument. By the time the orchestra enters, it seems like They are the soloist - a very neat turnaround of expectations. The epic gestures and heroic scale coupled with the at odds modern vocabulary and minimal orchestral gestures keep this near-parody of late high romanticism free of the sugary goo it could have been. Clever, that Finn.

[@Kemyusuf]

this is incredible!!

[@ZSYStriker]

I would hardly call Alban Berg's violin concerto sterile... What others here call our "innate sense of tonality" is really western-centric and narrow world-viewed. Chinese or Koreans growing up listening to pentatonic scale music don't find most Western diatonic music "innate".

[@swashknuckler]

I can tell you right now that this wasn't written out of sheer technicality. Whether you find this beautiful or not is most certainly a matter of taste (eye of the beholder and all that). In any case, I would define it as awesome (in the literal sense) and I don't think that is a matter of opinion.

[@colorizedenhanced-silentmo9027]

How are ya, DrFattyJr. it's a particularly pretty video. thank. :)

[@Ironfoot42]

Incredible... also, where can I find this beautiful picture?

[@geschiedschrijver]

@VirtualGamer42 You can find it on NAXOS, called "Sonic Rebellion", alternative classical collection. NAXOS 8.570760. In a flash it may remind you to Chopin's Revolutionary etude, but then it is ALL Rautavaara!!

[@yivgik]

GRANDE

[@tepzilon]

Epic!

[@gabrielrockman]

@gabecore Kaija Saariaho is another finish composer, a bit younger than Rautavaara, but there are similarities between their compositions. For someone who's music doesn't sound nordic the way that Rautavaara, Saariaho, or other guys like Peteris Vasks and Eduard Tubin do, maybe try Gyorgy Ligeti or Giya Kancheli

[@bassionbean]

7:55 the point is beauty through disruption. The whole piece is built upon tone clusters and dissonances (in the strings at that point there is Abmaj7 chords) so yes he could have made it more "beautiful" but it would be in stark contrast to the rest of the piece, which is one of a kind in itself.

[@182tubby]

what is the picture's name? thanks

[@isjakobmisch]

I really think it's great that you embrace that kind of music at your age! I suppose the things that is most disturbing and hard to get used to is the bi- and multi-tonality. Try to listen to the chords and feel, how you can't decide which of the different tonalities your ears and your brain want to hear. I know what you mean, but I sometimes find it fascinating how I start to float between the chords... maybe this is of any help in "understanding" the music if such a thing is possible :) cheers

[@gabecore]

anybody know of some works by other composers that are this "outside" but also gorgeously tonal? stuff like Ranjbaran's The Blood of Seyavash, or Schoenberg's Verklarte Nacht or Pelas und Melisande

[@KvasirYYC]

hah I was there! I wonder what this technique is called.

[@KvasirYYC]

I liked the piece (that's why I came looking on youtube), it's a new and refreshing sound to me as far as piano music goes. The dissonance is the point of this piece, but my friend didn't like it as much.

[@minimodo2000]

You also live in Calgary?

[@thebloads]

I dont get the feeling of any anger. Its just grandiosity, kindof like flying over the grand canyon. The tone clusters seem to give a very very dense contrapunctal effect, but not any emotional insinuations. But thats my humble opinion.

[@thebloads]

Aside from the tone clusters, what about this piece is any different from Ravel?

[@planmix]

@DrFattyJr both should be immortal.

[@jazzmunky]

Rach a 3rd rater? U MAD BRO?!? He had great rhythm, chromatic counterpoint, sense of drama (the tone pieces are brilliant). Some of those background quirky piano lines in 1st mov of the 4th concerto are genius, check the score.

[@billstamford1043]

Thank goodness for modern classics. I would die of boredom from the earlier composers. However there are exception like Beethoven for one.

[@KvasirYYC]

yep

[@jastinezz]

"The Painting is by Vladimir Kush a simple google search will turn it up."

[@ReignOfPraine]

Pretty damn good. Don't know why people need to blaspheme Rachmaninoff in the comment section, though.

[@james0xaf]

I didn't like this much on the first 5 listens or so... I tend to imagine it accompanying storm at night with massive waves building and crashing against a rocky coastline.

[@minimodo2000]

I heard this today. YOu have to play it with your forearm. It's pretty cool.

[@terrymiller99]

Very good. I hadn't heard this before, nothing like Ravel who I admire. Rachmaninov ? A third rater.

[@t.chapman6623]

No way! Best melodies all time!!

[@SLOVENEMUSIC]

This is bar far the best Rautavaara's piano concerto. The second is confusing for its programmatic form and the third is simply boring.

[@shanman150]

Huh. I guess I liked this, but I actually didn't like the "banging chords" all that much. Now, HOLD ON, before you go calling me out. I enjoy classical music, and I've found that my tastes have broadened over time. But I'm only 18, so I still have some time to go. I found the piano, particularly starting at 7:55 , to be far more disruptive than beautiful. I'm sure that Rautavaara could have made a smooth, gorgeous piano section there, so WHY did he make it so... well, ugly? I don't get it.

[@minimodo2000]

Didn't he play well?

[@swashknuckler]

Rachmaninov a third rater? I see you're new here.