Toccata Classics is an enterprising label whose willingness to take risks can only be applauded, and anyone familiar with contemporary music knows how exciting and important the modern Finnish school is. Recently, while in Helsinki researching my book on Sibelius (I got in a plug!), I had a conversation with a major Finnish composer who expressed his concern that the latest generation of composers may be running out of ideas, resorting to a certain generic European modernism. This is exactly what comes to mind in listening to Harri Vuori’s two symphonies.
There is nothing here that reveals a distinctive talent with a noteworthy expressive urge. The music is the usual quasi-atonal (or sort of tonal) mish-mash of non-styles. Orchestral textures tend to be overloaded, with the typical excess of percussion and purely colorist devices. And yet, timbre and texture don’t seem to further a discernible musical argument. Everything sounds at once contrived and unmotivated. The situation is worse in the Second Symphony, not just because the basic material is less attractive, but because the avoidance of classical forms only adds to the music’s general feeling of aimlessness. Presumably the performance gives the composer everything he requires, though the strings sound a touch undernourished, and the sonics are very good. Sadly though, this just isn’t special.
