By no stretch of the imagination could Leevi Madetoja (1887–1947) be considered a musical pioneer. Unlike his great contemporary, Aarre Merikanto (1893–1958), Madetoja contented himself with the idiom as bequeathed by the likes of Svendsen, Stenhammar and particularly the young Sibelius. But within these self-imposed bounds, his music shows him to have been a composer of considerable facility and imagination, occupying a place in Finnish musical history not unilke that of Bax in this country.
The Ostrobothnians (or Pohjalaisa; namely the people of a region of western Finland) was completed in 1923 setting Artturi Jarviluoma's allegorical play of 1914 in the composer's own (and slightly awkward) condensed version. The plot concerns a rural community oppressed by an unscrupulous foreign sheriff who will stop at nothing to impose a tyrannical regime, even to the extent of supporting a lawless band of marauding thugs who attack the farmers. One of the farmers, Antti, is under arrest following a (non-fatal) stabbing and Act 1 centres mainly on his relationship with his fiancee, Maija, and the growing quarrel between her brother, Jussi, and the sheriff. In Act 2 Maija induces Antti to escape under cover of an attack by the sheriff's thugs, whose leader is beaten in single combat by Jussi. When, in Act 3, a chance remark points to Jussi's involvement in the escape—of which complicity he is innocent—the sheriff closes, literally, for the kill.
The highly nationalistic tone of both play and opera betray the charged atmosphere of the times in which they were created. When Jarviluoma was writing what became his most successful play by far, Finland was coming increasingly under the heel of the Czarist government's Russification programme; a decade later, Madetoja's folk-oriented and conservatively Romantic idiom reflected the confidence of a newly-independent state, but the opera's classic status locally is not just the result of political coincidence. First and foremost, The Ostrobothnians is a cracking good work, very well laid out theatrically and musically, full of good tunes and possessing a compelling cumulative impact in its tragic denouement. The by turns romantic and dramatic elements of the story are mirrored very effectively by Madetoja's lyrical and powerful music. The play is not without humour either, and these prompted suitably deft responses from the composer.
This recording, made in 1975 by Finnlevy, but not made generally available in this country until the present CD reissue, has stood up well over time. The cast, including a youthful Jorma Hynninen as the tragic hero Jussi, all give totally committed and solid performances, as does the chorus and orchestra of Finnish National Opera under the direction of Jorma Panula. The voices are placed more forward than would be expected in an opera house acoustic but not uncomfortably so, and Madetoja's sturdy orchestral scoring is generally unobscured. A thoroughly worthwhile issue (especially as Madetoja's other opera, Juha, is currently unavailable) and highly recommendable.'