Songs

"A rewarding issue, then, excellently produced, with notes by the composer."
(Gramophone)

Finland is a remarkable country in numerous respects - a country of extremes, cultural as well as climatic. It is a country full of songs and of singers. And it is a country with a unique tradition of real bass voices - Martti Talvela, Matti Salminen and now Jyrki Korhonen who is rapidly becoming one of the world's most sought-after singers in his Fach. Jyrki Korhonen would not be true to his Finnish heritage if he had contented himself with showing off the beauty of his voice and the very remarkable depths to which it can reach. He has chosen here to place his voice and his artistry at the disposal of another great Finnish musician, the composer Einojuhani Rautavaara (b. 1928). Though Rautavaara is best known for his symphonic music, the solo song was one of his earliest musical interests and he has continued to write songs throughout his career. He writes: "My own background and environment was full of solo songs: my father was a singer, as was my cousin Aulikki Rautawaara. My interest in literature, lyric poetry and my own literary expression naturally led me to begin my first attempts at composition in the genre of the solo song. While I was still at school I composed dozens of songs, often to texts by Edith Södergran, Kaarlo Sarkia or Paul Verlaine. I believe that, even then, I was very selective in my attitude to poems and poets."

The songs on this disc were composed at various times over almost half a century. Poems by Rainer Maria Rilke are a major source of inspiration as well as three of Shakespeare's loveliest sonnets, along with Finnish and Swedish poems including Rautavaara's own poems written under the influence of a solitary trip to New York… "Experiencing the Bowery in New York at night was a journey into the heart of unforgettable nightmares or, even better, a trip to hell, with my American cousin, the poet David Anderson, acting as Virgil."

A unique voice presents itself in a demanding, and rewarding programme. The composer has himself revised the songs for this disc: "Because the songs were to be recorded by the bass Jyrki Korhonen, I wished to provide opportunities to hear his profundo register here as well. Thus I arranged the song cycles so that they were especially well suited to this voice, transposing them and adapting certain passages. Some of the songs thus extend as far down as the low F."