NEW RELEASE: Raautavaara "Lost Landscapes"
Follows Treviño's hugely-praised 'Americascapes' album, which won 'Best Recording of 2021' from Presto Music, Editor's Choice from Gramophone, 'Recording of the Month' from PhonoForum, Editor's Choice from Limelight, 5 stars from Classics Today
Treviño reunites with the Malmo Symphony Orchestra, of which he is Artistic Advisor, for the first time on record since 2020's complete Beethoven symphonies ("such freshness and vitality...so much to enjoy" BBC Radio 3 'Record Review')
The latest entry in Ondine's famous, long-running Rauatavaara series features works for violin and orchestra, including two world premieres
After a remarkable three-album run that has encompassed the complete Beethoven symphonies, Ravel orchestral works and little-known American masterpieces, Robert Treviño's fourth recording for Ondine turns to the Finnish composer Einojuhani Rautavaara, who died in 2016. The latest instalment in Ondine's long-running and famous series of Rautavaara recordings, Treviño conducts the Malmo Symphony Orchestra (of which he is Artistic Advisor and former Music Director) and the leading violinist Simone Lamsma, in works for violin and orchestra. The collection includes two world premiere recordings – 'In The Beginning' and the titular 'Lost Landscapes'.
It was Treviño, Lamsma and the MSO who gave the world premiere of the full orchestral version of 'Lost Landscapes', which was originally composed as a violin sonata, before Rautavaara orchestrated it, beginning in 2013. The first movement was premiered at the contemporary music festival at Tanglewood, but the forces on this recording gave the world premiere of the completed version in Malmo in 2021, and here set down their interpretation. The other premiere, 'In The Beginning', which doesn't feature the solo violinist, is a concise, atmospheric, overture-style work composed in 2015. Alongside these, the album features Rautavaara's violin concerto, 'Deux Serenades' (completed after the composer's death by Kalevi Aho), as well as the neo-Romantic 'Fantasia' (2015).
Treviño, one of today's fastest-rising American conductors, has received superlative reviews and accolades for his previous two Ondine albums, 'Americascapes' and 'Ravel'. 'Americascapes' has won 'Best Recording of 2021' from Presto Music (UK), 'Star Recording Of The Month' from Germany's PhonoForum, as well as 'Editor's Choice' from Gramophone, and five stars from Classics Today (US). 'Ravel' was named 'Recording Of The Month' by Limelight and 'Recording Of The Week' by ABC Classic FM (both Australia), 'Recording of the Week' by France Musique, the month's 'Critics' Choice' by Record Geijutsu (Japan), five stars from Classica (France) and, again, five stars from Classics Today. The New Yorker's Alex Ross called the 'Ravel' recording "uncommonly vibrant" and 'Americascapes' "superb".
The Mexican-American conductor, who is also Music Director of the Basque National Orchestra and Principal Guest Conductor of the Orchestra Sinfonica Nazionale della RAI, returns to Malmo in April for a major Sibelius festival. Recent months have seen his debuts with, variously, the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, Utah Symphony, La Scala Philharmonic and Gurzenich Orchestra Cologne, and a major Germany tour with the Orchestra Sinfonica Nazionale della RAI (every concert of which was received with a standing ovation). In the coming weeks, Treviño will make his first appearances with the Warsaw Philharmonic, La Fenice Orchestra, Osaka Philharmonic and at the Puccini Festival in Torre Del Lago.
"After exploring the music of my homeland with 'Americascapes', it was a huge honour to be invited to explore the music of Ondine's home," says Treviño, "But it would of course be wrong to simply categorise Rautavaara as 'a Finnish composer'. He was a composer of the world, and in fact his music sounds both of our world and of some other world that only he had knowledge of. Ondine's Rautavaara series has long been one of their crowning glories, so it was a privilege to join, and with such beautiful works. It was also a joy to be recording once again with the marvellous Malmo Symphony Orchestra, after our intense and unforgettable shared experience recording the Beethoven symphonies - and to be with one of my favourite soloists, the superb Simone Lamsma."
WATCH the trailer for 'Lost Landscapes'.
Notes For Editors
Robert Treviño is Music Director of the Basque National Orchestra, Principal Guest Conductor of the Orchestra Sinfonica Nazionale della Rai, and Artistic Advisor of the Malmo Symphony Orchestra.
Mexican-American by birth, Treviño has risen from humble origins in Fort Worth, Texas, to become one of America’s most exciting and fastest-rising conductors. Recent seasons have seen an ever-growing number of major debuts – among them the London Symphony Orchestra, Munich Philharmonic Orchestra, Orchestre de Paris, Orchestre National du Capitole de Toulouse, London Philharmonic, Tonhalle Zurich, Baltimore Symphony, San Francisco Symphony, Leipzig Gewandhaus, Sao Paulo Symphony, Detroit Symphony, Dresden Philharmonic, NHK Symphony, Toronto Symphony, Vienna Symphony, Netherlands Radio Philharmonic at the Amsterdam Concertgebouw, Rotterdam Philharmonic, Accademia Nazionale Di Santa Cecilia, La Scala Philharmonic, Orchestre Nationale de France, Rundfunk Sinfonieorchester Berlin, and Helsinki Philharmonic.
As well as the Ondine series, his recordings include the complete Bruch symphonies with the Bamberg Symphony Orchestra for CPO ("Robert Treviño joins a select list of conductors who have succeeded in making these awkward but intensely lovable works sing" – Gramophone) and 'The Golden Age' with Ray Chen for Decca.
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