After the volatile, unruly and twice-written First Symphony (191216), Merikanto’s Second (1918) was produced with much greater ease – no need for a thoroughgoing revision – and on a bigger scale, running in this committed account to almost 47 minutes’ playing time. Merikanto’s theme was war but there is little of the pity or the horror of Finland’s brief but murderous conflict in 191718, despite his having seen active service and been taken prisoner. The opening Allegro energico is heavy-scored and almost a symphony in itself; the succeeding Allegro scherzo is nimbler on its feet and does not outstay its expansive eight-minute span. The symphony’s heart, though, is the Largo, a freewheeling polyphonic fantasia of eloquent beauty, with reiterated grinding trombone glissandos that unsettled the audience at the premiere. After it, the celebratory Allegro con brio finale seems contrived and anti-climactic. Annotator Jouni Kaipainen finds it unsettlingly triumphalist but I think non-Finns may hear it rather as celebrating the war’s close and independence gained.

The Turku Philharmonic Orchestra under Sakari once again give a full-blooded interpretation, relishing Merikanto’s rich scoring and harmonic language that point towards the adventurous works of the 1920s. The gem of the disc is one of those: Ekho (1922), based on Koskenniemi’s retelling of the Greek myth, is a tone-poem-cum-song that may have been suggested by the example of Sibelius’s Luonnotar (1911), but there likenesses end. Ekho is a very different kind of work, a ravishingly beautiful score, impressionistic and dramatic, passionate and mysterious by turns, wonderfully sung by Anu Komsi. It baffled its first listeners yet is worth the price of the disc alone.