When Finns fall short
Album Of The WeekFrom the Lebrecht Album of the Week:
Like Russians at tennis, Finns now predominate in the production of classical music. Finnish conductors command orchestras from San Francisco to Paris, Finnish soloists receive more than their fair share of concerto dates and Finnish composers are extensively promoted. Sadness at the recent death of the exceptional Kaija Saariaho merely magnified the size of the footprint that a marginal nation of five million citizens has planted across an international art form. Finnish musicians are exceedingly well-trained and motivated. The question of individual quality is seldom put under the spotlight…
Read on here.
And here.
En francais ici.
The phrase “marginal nation” is needlessly condescending.
If you think these phenomenal Finns have achieved the musical stratosphere so far, just wait until you see what more they can accomplish…now that Finland is the newest member of NATO!
We should all be so “marginal” as Finland. This country ranks very highly on various socio-economic, educational, musical and personal well-being indicators by people who study these things. It also is viewed as extraordinarily important for the geopolitical security of Western Europe. Minnesota leads the American states in the number of residents of Finnish extraction (about 100,000), and we are the better for it.