Search - Timo Nuoranne, Finnish Radio Chamber Choir, Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra :: Rautavaara: True & False Unicorn

Great music, lackluster English

Fredric Hohlen | Milwaukee, WI USA | 02/15/2005

(4 out of 5 stars)

""True and False Unicorn" is an entertainingly whimsical set of poems commenting on the nature of the imaginary beast, set to music by the Finnish composer Einojuhani Rautavaara. His text-setting of the English is quite good for a non-native speaker, but unfortunetely the choir's diction is not. There's all manner of strangeness here in the vowels they make, sometimes to the point of distraction. Still, they sing with admirable tone (their recordings of Rautavaara's sacred music, in Finnish, are amazing) and have the support of great orchestral playing underneath them. Also on the disc is the "Cancion de nuestro tiempo", after postmodern poet Federico Garcia Lorca. The choir seems more at home here with the Spanish sounds, and for my money the work is just as captivating. If you can get past the spotty diction on the English, there's a lot to love here."