IIRO RANTALA - Mozart, Bernstein, Lennon
ACT Records: ACT9868-2
Iiro Rantala (grand piano) with The Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen
Recorded live in concert at the Jazzahead gala concert, Bremen, Germany 28/04/2017
In case the name isn’t familiar let me tell you that Iiro Rantala is a distinguished Finnish pianist who bestrides classical, jazz and improvised musical genres with equal commitment and perception. He predicts that in a few decades these generic distinctions will have withered away and proceeds to demonstrate his prognosis with this live concert recording which seamlessly combines his original compositions with classical works by Mozart, Leonard Bernstein and an arrangement of John Lennon’s anthem, `Imagine`.
Of his own compositions, two of which are tributes and are taken from `Lost Heroes`, his wonderful solo piano release of 2011, he runs the gamut of emotions from elegiac introspection to thundering gravitas setting playful allegros and perky ostinati alongside passages of stately elegance that unfold with an unforced spontaneity as though composed on the fly. Some of these are augmented with arranged string accompaniment but the main orchestral event is reserved for the concert’s centrepiece, a performance of Mozart’s most popular piano concerto, No. 21 in C major, Kv467 – that’s the one with the meltingly melodic slow movement that became known to the world and his wife as the Elvira Madigan theme. Rantala gives a straightforward, legit account of the score but wittily embellishes the final cadenza with a cheeky reference to Ravel’s Bolero to the delight and amusement of the audience and though I doubt whether his rendition will displace any of the more celebrated versions available to the classical cognoscenti it amply demonstrates breadth of his musical acumen and technique.
This is also evident in the second of his classical pieces, a solo piano transcription of Leonard Bernstein’s rumbustious overture to his opera `Candide`. Only being familiar with the orchestral versions of this work I’m unable to detect just how much liberty Rantala takes with the written score but it’s a bravura no holds barred performance that captures the exuberance of the piece to perfection whereas his reading of Lennon’s `Imagine` almost completely obscures the familiar theme beneath rumbling chords of foreboding pungency turning it into a melancholy threnody – the term `re-imagined` never seemed more appropriate.
The disc has appeared in the nominations for The International Classical Music Award for 2019 but unfortunately doesn’t seem to have made it into the finalists short list. Perhaps the judges found the programme too eclectically radical and jazz purists may be put off by the presence of a full blown classical concerto. This would be a pity, for if Rantala’s vision of boundary free musical appreciation is to be realised we should be prepared to venture outside our comfort zone from time to time.
Reviewed by Euan Dixon
ACT Records: ACT9868-2
Iiro Rantala (grand piano) with The Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen
Recorded live in concert at the Jazzahead gala concert, Bremen, Germany 28/04/2017
In case the name isn’t familiar let me tell you that Iiro Rantala is a distinguished Finnish pianist who bestrides classical, jazz and improvised musical genres with equal commitment and perception. He predicts that in a few decades these generic distinctions will have withered away and proceeds to demonstrate his prognosis with this live concert recording which seamlessly combines his original compositions with classical works by Mozart, Leonard Bernstein and an arrangement of John Lennon’s anthem, `Imagine`.
Of his own compositions, two of which are tributes and are taken from `Lost Heroes`, his wonderful solo piano release of 2011, he runs the gamut of emotions from elegiac introspection to thundering gravitas setting playful allegros and perky ostinati alongside passages of stately elegance that unfold with an unforced spontaneity as though composed on the fly. Some of these are augmented with arranged string accompaniment but the main orchestral event is reserved for the concert’s centrepiece, a performance of Mozart’s most popular piano concerto, No. 21 in C major, Kv467 – that’s the one with the meltingly melodic slow movement that became known to the world and his wife as the Elvira Madigan theme. Rantala gives a straightforward, legit account of the score but wittily embellishes the final cadenza with a cheeky reference to Ravel’s Bolero to the delight and amusement of the audience and though I doubt whether his rendition will displace any of the more celebrated versions available to the classical cognoscenti it amply demonstrates breadth of his musical acumen and technique.
This is also evident in the second of his classical pieces, a solo piano transcription of Leonard Bernstein’s rumbustious overture to his opera `Candide`. Only being familiar with the orchestral versions of this work I’m unable to detect just how much liberty Rantala takes with the written score but it’s a bravura no holds barred performance that captures the exuberance of the piece to perfection whereas his reading of Lennon’s `Imagine` almost completely obscures the familiar theme beneath rumbling chords of foreboding pungency turning it into a melancholy threnody – the term `re-imagined` never seemed more appropriate.
The disc has appeared in the nominations for The International Classical Music Award for 2019 but unfortunately doesn’t seem to have made it into the finalists short list. Perhaps the judges found the programme too eclectically radical and jazz purists may be put off by the presence of a full blown classical concerto. This would be a pity, for if Rantala’s vision of boundary free musical appreciation is to be realised we should be prepared to venture outside our comfort zone from time to time.
Reviewed by Euan Dixon
