Finnish composer Einojuhani Rautavaara, considered one the most important musical voices the country produced since Jean Sibelius and a teacher to a younger generation of Finns, died in Helsinki due to complications from surgery. He was 87.
"Rautavaara deservedly is the first Finnish composer after Sibelius to make an international breakthrough," said Reijo Kiilanen, the managing director of Ondine Records which released much of Rautavaara's music, to The Associated Press. "Sibelius was great, but no other Finnish composer has made a similar breakthrough."
Over the course of his prolific career, he wrote eight symphonies, 10 chamber and large-scale operas, as well as many other chamber works, concerti and other pieces for the stage, and he wrote music that evolved from Neoclassicism to 12-tone to Neoromanticism, for which he became best known.
Born on Oct. 9, 1928, Rautavaara entered the Sibelius Academy at the age of 17. In 1955, he was the recipient of a scholarship presented by the Koussevitzky Foundation to the Sibelius Academy, which allowed him to study at the Juilliard School and Tanglewood, where he met Aaron Copland and Roger Sessions.
International success followed the premiere of his Symphony No. 7 "Angel of Light," commissioned by the Bloomington Symphony Orchestra in 1994 and premiered on the occasion of the ensemble's 25th anniversary a year later in Indiana. One of a series of "Angel" works, the composer said they "... do not have a ‘programme’. They are absolute music by a composer whose mindscape has been crossed by strong, archetypical associations."
In a review of his 2013 release of Missa A Cappella, Q2 Music's Daniel Stephen Johnson called Rautavaara, "A composer who wields symphonic forces with ease," and continued to observe that "the mantle of history sits easily on his shoulders."
Rautavaara was also a professor of composition at the Sibelius Academy from 1976 to 1990, where he encouraged his students, including Esa-Pekka Salonen, to listen to themselves. Salonen spoke to Q2 Music on the occasion of a marathon of the music of both Rautavaara and fellow Finn Kaija Saariaho: "He's a fascinating man, he always talked about not conforming to the kind of mainstream demands but listening to your own voice and who you are," he said.
To commemorate Rautavaara's life and work, Q2 Music will stream the 12-hour marathon Thursday at 4 pm and again on Saturday, July 30, at 10 am.
Additional reporting came from The Associated Press.