Ville Urponen - Armas Maasalo, Väinö Raitio, John Granlund: OrganOrgan (SACD)

Maasalo - Raitio - Granlund

OrganOrgan

Ville Urponen organ

The History of Finnish Organ Music

Ville Urponen’s new album, OrganOrgan, traces the history of Finnish organ music. With the exception of Oskar Merikanto’s Konserttifantasiaa (1890) and Fantasiaa ja koraalia (1899), the few Finnish organ compositions of the 19th century were intended for church use. The true birth of Finnish organ music as art music did not occur until the early 1910s. The works on this album were composed between the 1910s and 1940s.

Armas Maasalo’s Tema con variazioni, Op. 35, published in 1936, is one of the finest Finnish organ works. Väinö Raitio composed Canzonetta with the Rieger organ at Helsinki’s Mikael Agricola Church—completed in 1935—in mind. Canzonetta embodies all the characteristics of Raitio’s organ compositional style from the 1930s: a folk-song-like melody, a frame structure, and the work concluding with a coda. Raitio’s masterful Legenda, Op. 20 No. 1, stands apart from other Finnish organ music of its time due to its orchestral approach. Armas Maasalo’s Sonata in C minor and John Granlund’s Passacaglia and Organ Sonata in B-flat minor are featured on this CD as world premiere recordings.

In recent years, Ville Urponen has performed a great deal of Finnish organ music. He has made the first recordings for Yleisradio of the complete organ works of Armas Maasalo, as well as music by John Granlund, Heikki Klemet, Ilmari Krohn, Taneli Kuusisto, and Erkki Melartin. In addition, he is an active performer of contemporary music, having premiered over twenty works

FORMAT: SACD