Einojuhani Rautavaara
Symphony No. 8 - "The Journey" (also known as "The Traveller") (1999)
The BBC National Orchestra of Wales
conducted by
Petri Sakari

Live recording at the Vale Of Glamorgan festival, Cardiff, September 11th 2002.

New link: Bohuslav kindly identified my foolish error of getting the left and right channels transposed - this link has the channels the right way around.
https://mega.nz/#!50YjCKSS!fGHhxDVAddeVqh-83b90KoS8JwY8Q6jJW1pAqw-c33s

Rautavaara was perhaps the most important Finnish composer since Sibelius. He passed away on July 27th aged 86.

I captured this live performance on BBC Radio 3; it is a recording from DAB (Digital Radio) made on Metal cassette with Dolby S - unfortunately, the DAB source is the problem here! Though Radio 3 has always been granted more bitrate than others (192kbps MP2 is positively luxurious considering what other stations are forced to use) the sound is still somewhat inadequate. Sorry.

The performance is lovely, though - a truly lovely traversal of what turned out to be Rautavaara's last symphony. I would passionate urge anybody who likes this to investigate his work in greater detail - Leif Segerstam's recordings with the Helsinki Philharmonic are second to none. Start with the 7th symphony ("Angel Of Light") and then peruse some of his concertos... but in all honesty his entire oeuvre is massively rewarding.

I am not usually a fan of "bump" - but I'm fairly certain that there are people who would be interested in this post but missed it because of the speed it got pushed off the front page. That is the curse of the minority interest post; the more popular something is, the higher up the forum it remains, and therefore the more popular it is... It's a vicious circle.

If you like this, please bump it. ;)

That is the curse of the minority interest post;

Tell me about it. :)

Thanks for this (to me) unknown version of this excellent symphony.

Many thanks for sharing, i listen to it right now. The sound is ok but the channels are changed left to right, normally violin's are playing on left hand side (american seating), shifting my earbuds. I looking forward to find Sawallisch conducting this 8th. Long ago, I see it on TV.

---------- Post added at 02:40 PM ---------- Previous post was at 02:33 PM ----------

https://www.amazon.com/Cologne-Music-Triennale-Rautavaara-Philadelphia/dp/B00005QBYW
here it is...need this soundtrack :)

Whoops! Quite right, thank you for pointing that out! Entirely my mistake.

I have updated the link.

Also... I just bought that DVD you linked. I can't resist the chance of actually seeing this symphony performed. :D

thanks for this one

Hi tangotreats, if you would like to extract the soundtrack, so you can make some Rautavaara friends happy :)

---------- Post added at 03:07 AM ---------- Previous post was at 03:02 AM ----------

Ah, forget to thanks for correcting.

if you would like to extract the soundtrack, so you can make some Rautavaara friends happy

But, of course. :)

The DVD has arrived and I have ripped it. A new thread will appear shortly. :D

Great news, big thanks in advance.