This album by the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra and Nicholas Collon joins together two impressive cosmic visions: Gustav Holst ’s iconic orchestral masterpiece The Planets together with a gem from Finnish orchestral literature, Väinö Raitio’s (1891–1945) Moonlight on Jupiter. Raitio’s work from the 1920s is recorded for the first time in 50 years and receives its first CD recording.

Aged forty, Holst began writing his best-known work, The Planets. This large-scale, seven-movement suite was completed it in 1916. Holst was concerned that his musical evocation of the planets should not be confused with characters from classical mythology, such as Venus. Neither is there any connection with astronomy. The basis of Holst’s inspiration was the much more controversial subject of astrology. Each movement of Holst’s ambitious suite reflects the alleged influence of a particular planet in our solar system upon human character. The Planets is written for a very large orchestra including much percussion, two harps, celesta, organ, two sets of timpani, and rarer instruments such as bass flute, bass oboe and tenor tuba. Holst’s own practical experience as an orchestral musician was invaluable to Holst in the development of his own boldly imaginative orchestration.

Väinö Raitio was one of the composers in what is known as the first wave of Modernism in Finnish music. Raitio’s idiom was very modern for his time, and this together with his premature death coloured his reputation among Finnish composers and musicologists. Raitio’s music of the 1920s is often described as having been influenced by the Colourist-Expressionist style of Alexander Scriabin and by French Impressionism. Raitio was above all an uncompromising visionary as a composer. What we know of Raitio as a person is vague, and he remains an enigmatic figure. Contemporary descriptions of him outline a shy and misanthropic recluse. He was no doubt an eccentric, at once reserved and uncompromising. The fantastic title of Moonlight on Jupiter was inspired by a compelling vision of space travel and of the multiple moons of Jupiter. It is also interesting that among all his works this was the one that he liked the best. The manuscript score bears a dedication: “This tone poem I dedicate to my cat, which came from Korso. I sent it to Jupiter in October 1922. V.R.” Raitio loved cats more than people and his dedication was a major upset to his contemporaries. In subsequent decades, Moonlight on Jupiter has come to be appreciated as perhaps the most satisfactory among all of Raitio’s 1920s orchestral work.