Juha

When this disc was released in 2005, the response was electrifying. Sharon Bezaly was described as "God’s gift to the flute" in The Times (UK), the other reviewers were agreed, and the disc received top marks in Le Monde de la Musique, Crescendo, Musica and other magazines as well as on radio stations and web sites such as Classics Today. As result this is staggeringly successful title with 150 000 copies sold worldwide.

Composer, poet and folk fiddler, Wiljami Niittykoski (1895–1985) came from the Kaustinen village of Salonkylä in Western Finland, a region renowned for its lively folk music tradition. With the Kaustinen Folk Music Festival first held in the 1960s and the new folk music era he came to be an artist famous and popular the length and breadth of Finland. As a young man, he initially made a living as a joiner, then by tending the farm hacked out of the wilds by his parents where he spent his whole long life.

The fresh new release from Alba Records presents three pieces by the Finnish composer Juha Leinonen performed by world-class artists. The booklet addresses the link between different kinds of art forms as it contains a beautiful painting Landscape in a Landscape (2006) by a fellow Finn, Kuutti Lavonen. The German early romantics thought that because music, painting and poetry at their best constitute a higher poetic tongue, they cannot be described using the inadequate conceptual repertoire of normal language. Only an artwork can explain another artwork. The most perfect musical composition of all is the most perfect description of the most magnificent painted masterpiece.

Back in 2014 an album arrived for review from Finnish composer, arranger and keyboard player Juha Kujanpää, and, as with many things unexpected, it turned out to be a rather pleasant surprise. This agreeable trend carries on with Niin Kauas Kuin Siivet Kantaa as Juha continues his exploration into a fertile, melodically rich mix of ethnic folk, with hints of classical music and healthy smatterings of progressive rock.

The 1920s was an exceptionally rich period in Finnish music history: Sibelius composed his last two symphonies and Tapiola, Leevi Madetoja released his opera The Ostrobothnians and two symphonies, Uuno Klami produced orchestral suites, Yrjo Kilpinen continued to publish internationally-acclaimed Lieder collections, and Aarre Merikanto (1893-1958) wrote his opera Juha. The true worth and inner essentialness of Merikanto's ideas has only been recognized after the man's death. What was then seen as eccentricity or even a lack of craftsmanship turns out in fact to have been and honest and well-founded search for the new.Merikanto spent the first two years of the 1920s composing Juha. The libretto was drafted by Aino Ackte, the leading Finnish operatic diva. Juha is a classic triangle drama featuring the elderly husband Juha, his young wife Marja, and the seducer Shemeikka. The depth of the tragedy is made still greater by the fact that of the three, the one driven to suicide is Juha, whose only sins appear to be those of lack of resolution and a certain simplicity. To be fair, Juha does give Shemeikka a bit of pasting, but he does not kill him, because he suddenly recognizes that after the betrayal that he has encountered "there is nothing left in life anymore".Merikanto's opera was never performed during the composer's lifetime. However, the opera was performed at the Savonlinna Opera Festival in 1970 and 1971, and is now recognized as one of the most important and influential Finnish operas.

Dedications may be a mere matter of courtesy, but like commissions, they may also make a piece of music more personal and individual. This is evident from works composed for the Ostrobothnian Chamber Orchestra and its founder and honorary conductor Juha Kangas. Regardless of composer and genre, these works have the profound, unaffected sound associated with the orchestra and an ethos founded on powerful experiencing and frank communication.

C'è chi considera la birra solo un prodotto industriale buono per ubriacarsi. E c'è chi crede nei birrifici artigianali, nei malti speciali e nei luppoli esotici. Secondo due intenditori come Mika Rissen e Juha Tahvanainen, però, la birra è molto di più. Un ingrediente di grande tradizione culinaria, una fonte di ispirazione, un ponte tra i popoli; la birra è da almeno dieci secoli parte della storia del vecchio continente. Ogni capitolo di questo libro ci racconta un episodio in cui la birra è stata testimone di qualche epocale avvenimento storico - finendo per influenzare in qualche modo gli esiti: da Martin Lutero, che preparò la sua difesa alla Dieta di Worms anche grazie a un barile di birra ricevuto in regalo, fino all'assedio di Sarajevo negli anni Novanta, quando l'unica fonte d'acqua potabile rimasta in città era la fabbrica della lager locale..