Lemminkäinen Suite

Dark and brooding, this suite is effectively a set of four symphonic poems for orchestra that respond to stories from the Finnish national epic Kalevala—homing in on the handsome adventurer Lemminkäinen, whose heroism is compromised by an addiction to chasing women. Composed in 1895 but later revised and reordered, the score grew out of abandoned ideas for an ambitiously Wagnerian opera. Starting with “Lemminkäinen and the Maidens of Saari”, a mystical horn call announces the hero’s arrival on an island where he seduces rather too many maidens and incurs the wrath of their menfolk, icy strings prefacing a passion-filled climax. “The Swan of Tuonela” has standalone status as a bleakly beautiful depiction of the isle of the dead around which a sacred swan (represented by cor anglais) floats funereally. In “Lemminkäinen in Tuonela”, the hero comes to kill the swan but is killed himself (a grim musical climax), only to be restored to life by his mother (a concluding lullaby). And finally, “Lemminkäinen’s Return” has a galloping rondo theme (introduced by bassoon) as the hero rides home after victories in battle, arriving in a blaze of E-flat major.