Here is a review of a new recording of music by Rautavaara posted to
Amazon.com just this morning.  It probably won't appear at that site for
another two or three days.  I wanted to share my thoughts with the
Davelist:

Vintage Rautavaara, nicely played

This CD has three parts:  the piano concerto, the "Autumn Gardens", and
a 13 minute conversation between Rautavaara and Vladimir Ashkenazy.  The
latter, although interesting, is not something I'd want to listen to more
than a time or two.  So, we are left with a CD containing about 54 minutes
of music.Hence, my rating of four stars rather than the five the music and
performances themselves deserve.

But, what music!  If you like the ecstatic Rautavaara, this will suit you.
The Piano Concerto, written for Ashkenazy and played and conducted by him,
subtitled "Gift of Dreams", never shouts but rises to several points of
exultation.  "Autumn Gardens" is a three-movement suite, the first two
movements played without pause.  Almost as a surprise, the third movement,
designated "giocoso e leggiero" comes as a brisk, gentle counterpoise to
the autumnal mood of what came before.  Then it fades into a lovely,
stately sarabande, ending nobly, like, as T.  S.  Eliot wrote, "late roses
filled with early snow."

The performances and recording are exemplary.

Scott Morrison