While the world of pre-Sibelius Finnish music is thinly populated with composers --
Karajan, the only Finnish composer before Sibelius of note, stopped after hearing Sibelius' music -- the world of post-Sibelius Finnish music is densely populated with composers. In addition to Melartin, Madetoja, and Merikanto, there was Uuno Klami, the subject of this 1993 Chandos disc with
Petri Sakari leading the
Iceland Symphony Orchestra. While in terms of sound, Klami was quite far from Sibelius -- there are few grinding ostinatos, fewer pounding rhythms, and fewer still gnarly forms and nary a gnomic harmony -- in terms of subject matter, the two were similar to the point of plagiarism -- Sibelius wrote a Karelia Suite and a Kalevala Symphony while several decades later Klami wrote a Karelian Rhapsody and a Kalevala Suite. Klami's pieces here were among his most popular in his lifetime, and they are still his most immediately appealing today. Melodic, direct, evocative, and colorful, Klami's music is in fact more immediately appealing than Sibelius' own music -- and therein lies its downfall. The heroic individuality that is at the core of Sibelius' identity as a composer is fatally diluted by imitation, and Klami's all-too-direct music fails to stand up under repeated hearing while Sibelius' gnarly and gnomic music just keeps getting better and better. Superbly played, expertly conducted, and brilliantly recorded, this disc is for listeners who know and love all of Sibelius' orchestral music and want to hear something written in more or less the same style.