Vaughan Williams and Rautavaara

Composer Zoltán Kodály was also a well respected ethnomusicologist, and was inspired by folk music. Dances from Galanta is based on Romani music from Galanta in Slovakia that Kodály heard as a child. Ralph Vaughan Williams’ Oboe Concerto evolved from his fifth symphony. The Swedish Radio Symphoniy Orchestra’s own oboe soloist Emmanuel Laville’s brilliant performance quickly takes you on a journey to the green British Isles and the musical tradition Vaughan Williams grew up in. In Cantus Arcticus, Einojuhani Rautavaara interweaves orchestral sounds with birdsong from Finland’s national bird, the whooper swan, and other birds, all recorded north of the Arctic Circle.