HARRI VUORI (b.1957): Symphonies Nos. 1 and 2.

Description: These two works are substantial, big-boned symphonies in the truest sense of the tradition, albeit overlain with Vuori's individual brand of modernistic color palette, gesture, and vibrant orchestration. The first is in the conventional four-movement form, with a sonata-form derived first movement, a sweeping, glacial slow movement (recalling Rautavaara, one of Vuori's teachers), a glittering, agitated scherzo (something of Sallinen here), leading directly into the impressively cumulative finale. The work revolves around clearly defined tonal centers, providing a structure that is logical and easy to follow. T he luminous Second is more lucidly orchestrated, and places more emphasis on coloristic effects, reflecting the composer's absorption of the principles of the Spectralist school. In five linked movements, alternating slow and fast, the music is more rhythmically complex than that of the First, and displays less allegiance to obvious models. Hyvinkää Orchestra; Tuomas Pirilä.