While it is undeniably true that the principal legacy of Aarre Merikanto (1893-1958) lies in his most pioneering music, dating roughly from the period 1918-31, his later, more accessible, style yielded works with much to offer. The Second and Third Piano Concertos (from 1937-8 and 1955 respectively; No. 1 was written prior to the First World War) are typical of his later output – contrapuntally inventive and impressionistic in scoring. Both have an engaging Prokofievan brio in the brisk outer movements and a Rachmaninovesque romanticism in the lyrical central adagios. Yet Merikanto never entirely forsook his adventurous harmonic writing, and especially in the Second the net result – allied to considerable formal lassitude – is to my ears suggestive of (of all people) Villa-Lobos. Granted it is with a Nordic not a Brazilian accent, but I am thinking here of works such as Momoprecoce and Bachiana No. 3 as much as the piano concertos; those who know both will hear what I mean.
Matti Raekallio is a pianist of considerable technical ability and musical sensibility. He has the measure of both concertos, and the Second in particular could well become popular as an alternative to Prokofiev’s Third or the Paganini Rhapsody. The purely orchestral Two Studies and Two Pieces (1941), though much slighter affairs, are by no means insignificant trifles. Tuomas Ollila secures more than competent performances from the Tampere orchestra, matched by excellent sound. A real delight.'