Review: The Strikingly Bold Music of Einar Englund 

Good to know Englund is receiving due recognition. A very consistent composer, perhaps the most satisfying Finnish symphonist after Sibelius. In some of them I hear a mix between Sibelius and Shostakovich. His chamber music is also magnificent.

Your sincere enthusiasm for (and wonderful excerpts from) Englund and his works is infectious. His "Barbararossa" Symphony hooked me when it first came out, then the Violin Concerto with those silver sheets of orchestral sound, Stravinskian percussive punctuations, and the very Scandinavian fiddling; but however momentarily derivative it might sound, Englund makes it all his own. I'm glad you spoke so forcefully about his being pushed into the shade in the 60s by the often soulless noodling of the serialists and other lemmings. A good number of fine mostly young composers were minimized, even vaporized by the Pure Musicians (and painters) of the academy. Any entrenched avant garde artistic community usually finds it hard to be energizing and catholic, but it can excel at creating real good Cancel Culture movements.

I've actually programmed the 1st Piano Concerto with my orchestra in Finland (Kuopio Symphony Orchestra) for their Independence Day, 2023. Glad Englund is finally getting his due. Incidentally, I studied with Jorma (like everyone and their cousin). Thanks for the video, David.

You put me onto Englund and I'll always be grateful for it. He's a really cracking composer and yes, absolutely the 1st Piano Concerto ought to be a repertory item.

oh oh oh i thought of myself as a curious classical music lover, but you showed so many undiscovered gems....thanks, it's enriching, you are one of a kind, really!

I'm delighted to hear Englund's music. Never heard of him before your commentary. I like very much his symphonies, especially the second. Thanks for introduced E.E. to me.

Thanks David, never heard of the good man until now.

I wish you could make a video on Eduard Tubin at some point.

Stupendous music! I first heard him on the basis of your Sibelius book. I like this format where you play examples...

What a discovery, Dave! It's amazing how much undiscovered music there is to mine..... Thank you, sir.

I'll add him to the pile of Northern European composers I need to listen to. You haven't steered me wrong thus far.

I am listening to the second symphony. Absolutely beautiful. Modern Sibelius. I love it when you introduce me to ‘musical’ contemporary music....

The flute concerto is a riot - a really brilliantly conceived and crafted piece.

So glad you did this after you recommended the pf. concerto !Englund piano concerto so memorable where none of Shostakovich's are .Not crazy about Rautavarra 3 yet but his violin concerto is great!

Hello Dave! An Enormous Thank You for showing us this music. Einar Englund’s music has brought me great moments of joy whenever I listen to his music ( I have recently heard his symphonies 2,4,5 and his Great Wall of China suite). His unique stile and musical perspective are really gratifying to hear. All that thanks to you! A question: Do You know the name of the painter of the portrait that is on the cover of that Naxos disc? (I am an Art lover and that portrait got me curious) Thank you for reading and take care!

Never heard of Mr. Englund. I’ll listen to Symphony No 2 as soon as I’m done with this review! By the way, the quality of Irgens-Jensen’s music is shockingly good.

Englund Violin Concerto (1981) is a great piece (there is a recording with Benjamin Schmid). Amazingly, this piece seems to have been performed only twice until Schmid made the recording.

and why on earth don't we hear this music in concert, skip the Mahler, Bruckner and Beethoven for once..this classical bizz is often so static and these lethargic conductors...grrrr

I'll bet I read your Fanfare review of the Englund. Something made me check him out long ago and I agree he's great. In the 80s I was an avid Fanfare reader

Very apt remarks, although I should say that a music critic can sometimes be a bit TOO positive, and then provoke a feeling of disbelieve: Einar Englund wrote in his autobiography on the listener’s appreciation of his 2nd symphony (and also the 1st) the following, also quoting YOU, Mr Hurwitz: “ The polemics were waving back and forth. Positions were taken in favor and against. Some raised the symphony into the clouds, others raised their fists. The experts argued. But gradually the controversy was muted, and the symphony disappeared from the repertoire. It reared its head from time to time and always aroused mixed emotions. My piano quintet, which had already attracted a certain attention in 1941, had been sent to the Nordic Music Festival in Oslo in 1948, while Kalervo Tuukkanen's first symphony was allowed to represent the Finnish symphony. For the next Music Days in Copenhagen in 1952 Olavi Pesonen’s symphony (which has now been completely forgotten) was chosen to represent Finland. My “number two” was also overthrown by Aarre Merikannon's third symphony in Reykjavik in 1954. My symphony was quite simply schemed out of the game. (Both, actually.) It was already crowded in the passageway by then, and my second symphony fell into oblivion. So was the first [symphony]. That's what happened. When, 40 years later, the work appeared on CD in two different versions, the voices of the press were quite different. Time provides perspective. The reaction of foreign newspapers became unexpectedly strong. I really hadn't dreamed of that, after all, the symphony was almost half a century old. Could I finally look forward to a renaissance? Veijo Murtomäki wrote in Helsingin Sanomat (on 28.12.1990) quite decently: "The second symphony (1948) ... has a place in the Parnassus of the Finnish Symphony." Thomas Ruth, on the other hand, goes even further in Musik & Ljudteknik magazine (10/1993 Stockholm): ”… The [2] Symphony is one of the best Nordic symphonies to be heard... absolutely masterful!” But what should I say about David Hurwitz's statement in Fanfare magazine in 1992, USA? He's getting even better: ”… I think that this piece is a genuine masterpiece of 20 century symphonic writing…” Damn it! A brutal Joke? [in Finnish: ”Hurja Witsi”…] But the fact of the matter is that my “number two” is considered by current musicologists to be my best work, although personally I'm setting my “number three”, the so-called "War diaries" first.

"Tempus fugit" reminded me of the ending of Shostakovich's 15th symphony!

The first vowels of Einar (Ei) are pronounced like "a" in tape. Thanks for your analysis of Englund's music!

Dear Dave why not a programme on Alfred Schnittke?

It's interesting that you talk about a contemporary (or almost contemporary) composer. A while ago I read a list that some critics at The Guardian had made of what they viewed as the 25 best classical works of the twenty first century, i.e. the last 20 years. I went and listened to all those works, and I found some of them interesting, but I thought for myself: NONE of these is of the calibre of The Rite of Spring or La Mer or Mahler's symphonies... This is my very subjective judgement, but contemporary music seems to lack the vitality and sense of adventure that it had a hundred years ago. Even the styles of the composers on that list are at least 40 years old: avant-garde modernism, neo romanticism, minimalism, post-minimalim, 'holy' minimalism, drone music (as in John Luther Adams) etc.. So my impression is that there isn't really much new stuff being created, and I certainly don't know why this might be the case.

Sorry but Eisner Englund is hardly a great composer to my ear. Geirr Tveitt is another tragic 20Th century composer who deserves greater recognition.