Piano Concerto.3, Etc: Ashkenazy(P)/ Helsinki.po

This selection includes a recording of a conversation between Einojuhani Rautavaara and Vladimir Ashkenazy.
The Finnish composer Einojuhani Rautavaara has written some remarkably eclectic and moving music over the years. Following in the grand footsteps of Sibelius, Rautavaara is the foremost composer in Finland.
He is wonderfully prolific and his music has a sense of drama that continues to fascinate. This recording features his Piano Concerto No. 3, subtitled 'Gift of Dreams,' a work that was written for the great Russian pianist Vladimir Ashkenazy. The balance of the recording is taken up by a tone poem, 'Autumn Gardens,' and a recorded conversation between Rautavaara and Ashkenazy.
The concerto is in the traditional three-movement form and opens in a darkly introspective mood that builds in intensity before resolving to tranquillity. Ashkenazy is brilliant throughout, especially in the impassioned yearning of the second movement Adagio. 'Autumn Gardens' is a masterful work, filled with clashing tonal colors, occasionally flirting with impressionism. This is a major work by one of the great composers of the 20th Century, one who certainly deserves wider recognition. Ashkenazy leads the Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra in a performance that lacks nothing in lushness or colorful orchestral detail.
REVIEWS:
International Record Review (4/00, pp.41) - "...[Rautavaara's Third Piano] concerto is a powerful, brooding work, imbued with dark colours, intense and soulful melodies, and massive tensions that resolve to moments of touching repose....Ashkenazy leads a polished Helsinki Philharmonic..."