Outi Tarkiainen

The concerto remains a cornerstone of contemporary music. How do recent recordings reinterpret this classical genre? In this article, Jari Juhani Kallio reviews the latest concerto releases by Finnish composers.

“A woman must have money and a room of her own if she is to write fiction,” is the key sentence in the essay A Room of One’s Own by Virginia Woolf (1882–1941). Published in 1929, it is a discussion of why women have remained so overwhelmingly in the shadow of men as writers and more generally in society at large. The world premiere of Outi Tarkiainen’s new opera in Hagen, Germany on 14 May 2022 asks the same question – but how does this translate from essay to opera?

The professional profile and operating environment of Finnish composers of classical music have become increasingly international at a rapid rate in the past three decades. Back in the day, few composers spent extensive periods of time abroad, and any trips they did take were mainly for study or for inspiration and did not necessarily involve immersion in the local music scene. This started to change in the 1990s, as the Finnish music industry began to integrate into the international music industry.

"The Earth, Spring’s Daughter is dramatic and gorgeously sounding. [-] Saivo elegantly combines contemporary aesthetics, associations to nature, and a mythological dimension."

Violinist Maria Puusaari writes to the FMQ readers about music that is significant for her, and about the role of music in her life during important turning points and times of crisis.

Here’s a bold idea, and a bold choice of repertoire, and it largely works – although I found it more rewarding to concentrate on one work at a time rather than listen through in a single session, even with the multitracked rhythmic jollity of Steve Reich’s New York Counterpoint to bring variety to the sound of solo clarinet. The trouble is that almost all the pieces follow the same basic premise.

Outi Tarkiainen has long since learned the lessons of her chosen poets: to be true to oneself. That results in outstanding music of meticulous clarity and frequent emotional strain. It needs heartfelt and considered performances, and gets them here.

"Foreigners like me once had the idea that Finland was a difficult country in which to be a composer; so strong was Sibelius’s legacy and so dominant those famous names who succeeded him. But that idea now seems outdated," writes Andrew Mellor in his column on the Day of Finnish Music.

How does the latitude of Finland affect creativity among musicians, aesthetically and politically? Andrew Mellor asked some Finns, non-Finns and almost-Finns…

Growing up in roughly beautiful Lapland has affected Outi Tarkiainen’s personality and her voice as a composer. For her, music is almost like a force of nature, which can change people and their destinies. Andrew Mellor met Tarkiainen in Rovaniemi, just as she had finished her song-cycle The Earth, Spring’s Daughter.

"Outi Tarkiainen’s first arrangement for UMO Jazz Orchestra was heard 10 years ago, when she was 18. The material on this album was created between 2005 and 2011. The centrepiece is the 17-minute Into the Woodland Silence."

“The best collaborations empower or even improve their participants. Whenever guitarist Marzi Nyman stepped up during Silence Festival he seemed to lift the creative discourse to another level with his gregarious, joyous musicianship.”