EINOJUHANI RAUTAVAARA (b.1928): Manhattan Trilogy, Symphony No. 3.

Description: Manhattan Trilogy (2004) is a reminiscence of the composer's student years ("Daydreams", "Nightmares" and "Dawn") and is more neo-romantic than you might expect, with achingly beautiful lines of melody woven in and even the more dissonant Nightmares movement is often lush-sounding. The symphony dates from 1960 and is a fascinating Finnish response to Bruckner, conceived in a very personal dodecaphonic system and synthesizing the romanticism of Rautavaara's first symphony and the avant-garde modernism of his second. Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra; Leif Segerstam. SACD hybrid.