Mirka Viitala, Reeta Maalismaa, Aino Oksanen, Tuija Rantamäki & Kati Salovaara - Rebecca & Louise (2023) [24/96]

The new Rebecca & Louise album features strong and large-scale chamber music. The group of five female musicians manages the songs' torrential power with skill and precision.

The cover image of the new album Rebecca & Louise strikes a humorous but with real purpose wink in the direction of an upright attitude towards women's issues. The musicians on the album hold up a sign with a photo of composer Rebecca Clarke. Composer Louise Farrenc's image is on another sign, leaning on the ground in front of a quintet of musicians.

Although musicians of all genders participate in the performances of female composers stuck in the shadows of music history, with this new album it seems important to mention that five women play on the album, five assumed to be women: violinist Reeta Maalismaa, viola player Aino Oksanen, cellist Tuija Rantamäki, bassist Kati Salovaara and pianist Mirka Viitala.

There are two works on the album, Clarke's piano trio and Farrenc's first piano quintet. Both works have been recorded before, but bringing composers forgotten by history to light requires a certain kind of critical mass: numerous recordings, numerous concert programs, numerous radio programs. In March, the Alba record company released one recording that could accumulate that mass. And quite a delightful one!

In the introductory text of the album, dramaturg Maija Alander reflects fresh and from a close distance on the shadow cast by historical male guardians, under which the female composers of this album also worked. Alander ends his text with a suggestion: let that shadow stay aside for a while! He also offers an alternative perspective: Rebecca Clarke and Louise Farrenc did not compose in the shadow of men, but in spite of them.

Both Farrenc and Clarke worked in a time when qualities such as grandeur, mastery, strength, courage and breaking boundaries seemed unfathomable and impossible when combined with music composed by women. All this can be heard on the Rebecca and Louise new album.

Because of her gender, Louise Farrenc had to have her symphonic works performed. Perhaps that is why his piano quintet has symphonic features. It is in four parts and follows a symphonic format, where in the silence after each part, an expected character of the character of the next part is formed in the mind: the brilliant and raucous first part betrays the adagio part, which starts with a melodic solo, which in turn creates the need for a peppery scherzo part. Three different parts accumulate material for a brilliant finale.

The quintet also turns into a piano concerto, especially in the first movement. Pianist Mirka Viitala nimbly escapes sovereign virtuoso pieces in a way that puts a smile on your face. This record makes you want to listen to it at high volume in a large room where the music can spread out and where you can see far from the windows. Personal memories of Kuhmo's chamber music evening concerts in a hot gymnasium also want to seep into the listening experience. Sharing this personal memory is a way of asking where this work was still hidden in the 1980s.

The recording of the Rebecca and Louise album serves the glow of Farrenc and Clarke's music and serves up many delightful details. For example, the way Kati Salovaara's bass has been made to be pleasantly present is enjoyable. The quintet brings out the fullness of Farrenc's melodic set, avoiding by a wide margin the pitfalls of pressing and overcharged sound. At the end of the finale, the subtle acceleration of the tempo and its decelerating deceleration are a good example of the fine-tuning level at which this group operates. Nothing goes wrong. The regulation of the dynamics, tempos and mutual balance of the instruments are carried out moderately and with good taste. Such an avalanche-powerful musical language is known to tempt even experienced musicians to interpretive excesses.

I suggest that the musicians of the Rebecca & Louise album come up with a band name for themselves, so that it is easier to follow them to concerts, festivals and next recordings. At least I follow!

Mirka Viitala, piano, Reeta Maalismaa, violin, Aino Oksanen, viola, Tuija Rantamäki, cello, Kati Salovaara, double bass.

Tracklist:
01. Piano Trio: I. Moderato ma appassionato
02. Piano Trio: II. Andante molto semplice
03. Piano Trio: III. Allegro vigoroso
04. Piano Quintet No. 1 in A Minor, Op. 30: I. Allegro
05. Piano Quintet No. 1 in A Minor, Op. 30: II. Adagio non troppo
06. Piano Quintet No. 1 in A Minor, Op. 30: III. Scherzo. Presto
07. Piano Quintet No. 1 in A Minor, Op. 30: IV. Finale. Allegro


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