Leiviskä, Helvi - Piano Concerto, Op. 7; Symphony No. 1 (2CD) - Triendl, Oliver

The Piano Concerto in D minor was composed between 1931 and 1935 and premiered on November 23, 1935. The concerto was performed by the Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Toivo Haapanen, with Ernst Linko as soloist. The concerto has survived only in piano reductions and instrumental parts, but the original score has been lost. The piano part contains several cuts and facilitations made by the 1935 soloist, while the instrumental parts are complete. The most likely consequence was that the orchestra played some passages without the soloist. For this recording, Leiviskä's original solo part was restored. Several reviews, mostly written under pseudonyms, discussed the symphony after its premiere. The reviews were mostly positive. It was both praised and criticized for its structure and the inclusion of a waltz theme, and comments on the themes and melodies were also ambiguous. After 1948, the symphony was performed three more times until 1951. After 70 years of silence, the symphony was revived in 2022.