Melartin: Symphonies 5 & 6

As the forefather of Finnish music, Jean Sibelius has always attracted so much attention that the foreign observer easily misses the wealth of masterful talents who successfully practiced the profession of composer in the land of a thousand lakes. One of them was Erkki Melartin. Barely ten years younger than the creator of Finlandia, he also left behind a significant oeuvre that has often prompted comparison with his older colleague - a comparison, of course, the results of which have been disappointing. It is true that here and there one can discover a turn of phrase reminiscent of Sibelius; occasionally a word from Mahler's vocabulary may have crept in; but the personality that confronts us in the six mighty symphonies, for example, drew independent conclusions from the Romantic tradition that led inexorably into an unheard-of cosmos.