Mention Finland and you think reindeer and saunas. What you should be thinking is music.
By Albert Innaurato
A young Finnish violinist named Linda Brava appeared in the April 1998 issue of Playboy with a gold violin—and absolutely nothing else.
Looking at Brava in the altogether, it's easy to miss the larger point: For a tiny country (pop. 5.1 million) Finland sure turns out a lot of talented musicians. Though the entire country has fewer inhabitants than New York City, it has 29 symphony orchestras, 11 conservatories and 150 music schools.
Lately those schools have been turning out a bumper crop of virtuosos. Why Finland? Have you forgotten Jean Sibelius?
Sibelius (1865-1957) occupies a controversial niche in the world of the great composers. Every orchestra must play his works—particularly the second, fifth and seventh symphonies—but many of this century's most sophisticated musical minds have sneered at him. Too tuneful.
Nevertheless, Sibelius explains why music plays so large a part in Finland's life. A nationalistic upsurge followed Finland's liberation from Russia in 1917, and, as Finland's best-known figure, a lot of it centered on him—just as a lot of Polish pride centered on Ignacy Paderewski when Poland became independent, so much so that the great pianist was actually made premier. In Poland, as in Finland, musicmaking became fundamental to national identity.
In Finland, at least, the tradition has endured, and the heirs of Sibelius' legacy are well worth encountering. Many are young, and they often combine a musical refinement unusual for their age with great verve and brio. You find them in every classical music discipline, from the brilliant soprano Karita Mattila to the orchestra conductor Esa-Pekka Salonen.
Salonen, only 40, is music director of the Los Angeles Philharmonic. Usually seen in jeans, Izod shirts and Top-Siders, Salonen has movie-star looks, but he is also the first conductor ever to win the Siena Prize, given only to the world's best musicians.
Salonen won his intellectual spurs with recordings of symphonies by late greats like Witold Lutoslawski and Olivier Messiaen. His recording of Bernard Herrmann's fascinating movie scores is an intoxicating high, and his recent CD of Mahler's massive Third Symphony shows his superb ear and grasp of a tricky style.
There are three other formidable young turks among the Finnish conductors: Jukka-Pekka Saraste, now 42, is almost as good-looking as Salonen and has built the Toronto Symphony Orchestra into a major ensemble; 32-year-old Sakari Oramo was tapped to succeed Sir Simon Rattle as head of the important Birmingham Symphony; and Osmo Vänskä, 45, single-handedly saved the distinguished BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra from mediocrity.
Add to this list one grand old man: Leif Segerstam, 54, has stayed nearer home, which makes his recordings harder to find—but violinist Joshua Bell, for one, is particularly fond of him. Segerstam's Mahler recordings are considered to be the most challenging since the second Bernstein series. There are also two outstanding Finnish pianists, Ralf Gothoni, 52, and Olli Mustonen. Mustonen, 31, has already achieved considerable international fame. "He owns what he plays—the most unusual quality of today's virtuosos," says Joshua Bell. "His CD of the piano adaptations of the Beethoven and Bach violin concertos taught me about music I've been playing my entire life."
Three of the most important living composers in the world are Finnish: Einojuhani Rautavaara, who will be 70 this month; the 40-year-old Magnus Lindberg; and possibly the world's most remarkable female composer, Kaija Saariaho, 45.
An aging Sibelius named Rautavaara as his only heir. His confidence was not misplaced. Rautavaara's symphonies and operas have a rich, melodic, spiritual power unique in the world today.
As one who loathed the electronic "musique concrète" that was so trendy in the Seventies, I was prepared to hate Saariaho. But her two grand symphonic works conducted by Salonen on Finland's Ondine label are beautiful.
Linda Brava? She recently modeled Bjorn Borg's line of women's underwear and ran for a seat on Helsinki's city council. She won. We would like to think she won because Finns love music, not because they were mesmerized by her naked charms.
