Zemlinsky

The Dutch are way too hard on themselves. So far, Chandos has released three discs (including this one) in its ongoing Dutch composers series featuring the Residentie Orchestra of The Hague, and all three have been excellent. And yet, the writer of the booklet notes treats this music as if listening to it were some kind of penance. He should take a lesson from his English colleagues, who indiscriminately promote any piece of native trash as God’s gift to the world of music. Well, maybe he needn’t go quite that far.

This disc presents a survey of music by Finnish composer Toivo Kuula, a pupil of Sibelius. Best-known for his songs and choral music, Kuula s arresting orchestral music draws heavily on folk influences and constitutes some of the most striking Finnish music of its time. Renowned soprano Susan Gritton and the BBC Concert Orchestra under the inspired baton of Martyn Brabbins give spellbinding accounts of this gloriously colorful repertoire.

Soprano Sandrine Piau writes in the program notes that there is no narrative or theme unifying the songs on this album, only the quality they share of being evocative of something beyond themselves. The late Romantic songs are indeed understated and suggestive rather than emphatic, many written in elegiac moods of hushed happiness or subdued yearning. The centerpiece is Richard Strauss' four song cycle, Madchenblumen, written when the composer was 26, which provided Piau with the initial inspiration for this collection. It's immensely appealing, and its generous lyricism makes it a work that deserves to be widely sung and known.

Landmark songs composed at a turning point of the Austro-German Lieder tradition, rarely recorded but suffused with passion and beauty.