ERKKI MELARTIN (1875-1937): Music from the ballet The Blue Pearl, Op. 160, traumgesicht, Op. 70, Marjatta for Soprano and Orchestra, Op. 79.
Catalogue Number: 06R007
Label: Ondine
Reference: ODE 1283-2
Format: CD
Price: $16.98
Description: “Dream Image” is a 16-minute symphonic poem from 1910 which was adapted from incidental music for a Symbolist play and it shows Melartin on the cutting edge of international trends led by Richard Strauss, Scriabin and Debussy. Even more Impressionistic and more delicately orchestrated is Marjatta (1914), a commission from Aino Ackté, for whom Sibelius produced Luonnotar the previous year; the latter sets poetry from the first poem of the “Kalevala” and Marjatta from the last. A late work, The Blue Pearl (1929) is a fairy-tale ballet, less Impressionistic, more economical in execution (as in Melartin’s Sixth Symphony); eight dances are presented here in this 26-minute series. Finnish-English texts. Soile Isokoski (soprano), Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra; Hannu Lintu.