Idyll turned to nightmare, optimism to disillusionment, creative fruitfulness to barren schizophrenia and premature death. The tragic fate of the founder of Finnish-language literature has haunted Rautavaara ever since his youth. The opera Aleksis Kivi (1995-6) was the melodious crystallisation of a lifetime's pondering. Kivi (1834-72) was active while Swedish words still predominated in Finnish literature, the Finnish poet Johan Ludvig Runeberg having been the best-known Swedish-language exponent of the genre. Kivi's descent from lyrical flights of pastoral fancy to mental derangement was caused in part by damning assessments of his work from the poet and aesthetician August Ahlqvist, the only speaking role in the opera. Ahlqvist is portrayed here by the actor Lasse Pöysti, whose rhythmically inflected recitation is utterly bewitching.
Musically Aleksis Kivi calls on a varied array of styles. The Prologue depicts Kivi as despondent, despairing and deranged, the music dark and grainy, with a reptilian clarinet in the foreground and a skilfully deployed synthesiser. The scoring is economical throughout (strings, clarinets, percussion) but those who gravitate most readily to his 'angel' orchestral works will likely respond best to the First Act, music filled with mellow light which reflects, in its rich, constantly shifting hues, the protagonist's inspirational flights. The performance is consistently good, the mezzo Eeva-Liisa Saarinen excelling as Charlotta. Confidently conducted, keenly played and vividly recorded, Aleksis Kivi is a powerful narrative written with the kind of descriptive facility that Bartók employed for Bluebeard's Castle.