Väinö Raitio (1891-1945)
Friday, January 23, 2026
Concert Hall, Helsinki Music Centre, Mannerheimintie 13 A, 00100 Helsinki, Finland
Being guided by past performances from this pianist and this conductor, one might have anticipated the Bartók as being too refined for music that has percussiveness as integral to its nature, and the Janáček as arriving rather too smoothly for a score that has edges. Up to a point, anticipations were confirmed if by relatively few percentage points, for the First of Bartók’s Piano Concertos was delivered with tenacity by Francesco Piemontesi, if never crude or over-projected, dissonance not shirked if not made the be all or end all, Nicholas Collon with similar objectives ensuring clarity of detail and fine-line balances, with the middle-movement processional suitably austere/enigmatic and the Finale was pounded with panache. And so it was that Janáček’s Sinfonietta, with its extra brass, was joyous and celebratory, confidently played, the musicians at the heart of the melodies and displaying a sense of narrative and characterisation.
Väinö Raitio’s Puistokuja (The Avenue) “is a setting of a poem by Elina Vaara (1903–1980) presenting a vision of man’s need to continue his journey along the avenue of life.” Impressionistic and rapturous, the eight-minute setting was inhabited with complete identification by Anu Komsi, subtly coloured by the orchestra, an impressionism anticipated by Piemontesi’s encore, one of Debussy’s Preludes, ‘Canope’ (Book II/X), music that draws the listener into its veiled and distant being, Raitio’s similarly. The concert opened with Roussel’s Suite in F (maybe, just maybe, a model for Walton’s Partita, structurally and in various distinctions), music of rhythmic verve, direction, release, lyrical loveliness (if interrupted), joie de vivre, and wit. Very well done by FRSO, Collon perspicacious on behalf of Roussel’s requirements and trademarks.
Albert Roussel: Suite in F
Béla Bartók: Piano Concerto No.1
Väinö Raitio: Puistokuja (for soprano and orchestra)
Leoš Janáček: Sinfonietta