It is now almost a quarter of a century since Sallinen first came to international attention with Mauermusik, written in 1962 as a memorial to a young German victim of the Berlin wall (Decca SXL6431, 2/73—nla). In recent years he has been one of the leading forces behind the revival of opera in Finland, and his latest opera The king goes forth to France, commissioned jointly by the Savonlinna Opera, the BBC and the Royal Opera House, will be produced next year at Covent Garden. Sallinen has now reached his Fifth Symphony, sub-titled Washington mosaics, and commissioned by Rostropovich who conducted its first performance last October.
It was at Rostropovich's instigation that Shadows, the first work on this disc, came into being. It was given at a Prom two years ago, and is an effective short piece, related both thematically and in its atmosphere, to The king goes forth to France, Hardly surprising, since Sallinen composed it immediately after finishing the Second Act of the opera. As the sleeve-note points out, although it is an independent work, its content reflects or ''shadows'' the content of the opera. I have often found my initial reactions to Sallinen's music fallible: although its atmosphere is often powerfully charged, it seems at first wanting in the kind of concentration that you find, say, in Bentzon's Fourth Symphony or Holmboe's Seventh. I have sometimes felt that the melodic ideas lack quality and that the invention is wanting in substance. (Some critics in the 1930s and 1940s used to say the same of Benjamin Britten!) Yet so strong is the atmosphere that one always wants to return to the music, and it is not very long before new detail that seemed insignificant at first hearing comes to the surface. Perhaps the very accessibility of his musical language with its overtones of Shostakovich, Puccini and Britten, is in itself deceptive. Such was my experience with the First and Third Symphonies, which cast a strong spell.
A gap of some years separate the Third and Fourth Symphonies. The latter is a three-movement work, but was composed, as it were, backwards: the first movement on which Sallinen began work eventually becoming the finale. The middle movement is marked ''Dona nobis pacem'' and throughout the finale bells colour the texture, as is often the case in his orchestral writing. In fact, the familiar fingerprints are to be found all over the score, and it is not long before the listener succumbs to it. However, it is the Cello Concerto of 1977 to which I have returned most often. It is oddly laid out, as long, expansive first movement taking almost 20 minutes and its companion just over five. Yet the first, which is based on variation never seems discursive, and Sallinen's ideas and his sound world resonate in the mind. Arto Noras has its measure and plays with a masterly eloquence. The performances under Okko Kamu are very impressive and the recording quite exemplary. Strongly recommended.'