Classical guitarist Andrew Wilder performs Partita for Guitar, Op. 34 by Finish composer Einojuhani Rautavaara (1928-2016). This comes via Wilder’s YouTube channel (go subscribe). Amazing performance by Wilder with everything from rapid virtuosity to beautiful phrasing. I really appreciated his sense of balance and handling of the texture in the thicker second movement.
Einojuhani Rautavaara was one of the most notable Finnish composers since Jean Sibelius. I’ll try to find out more about this work and who it was composed for. The partita was originally written for guitar, and was later transcribed for piano by the composer. There is a small description by Rautavaara of the piano arrangement via this Naxos album:
The first sketches for the minor set of variations, Partita, were written in New York in 1956. I was working on a composition for a guitarist, and there are still traces of guitar texture detectable in the piano work, for instance in the accompanying chords of the second movement. The guitar piece was never completed, but two years later I fashioned the material into a partita for piano. This work has three movements of differing character, variations on the same motif.
