Aarre Merikanto - Six Piano Pieces Op. 20

- Composer: Aarre Merikanto (29 June 1893 -- 29 September 1958) - Performer: Liisa Pohjola - Year of recording: 2004 Six Piano Pieces {Kuusi pianokappaletta}, Op. 20, written in 1919. 00:00 - 1. Melody {Melodie} 02:41 - 2. Pan 04:27 - 3. Improvisation 07:17 - 4. A Dream {Uni} 10:48 - 5. Scherzo 12:22 - 6. Moonlight {Kuutamo} Finnish composer Aarre Merikanto wrote some small piano pieces of great character throughout his composing career, though not at the height of his most pointedly Modernist period in the 1920s. Closer in time and style to the landscape of his famous Juha and the great orchestral works are the Six Pieces for Piano, Op. 20 from the late 1910s. The nature mystic and shaman in Merikanto are most in evidence in his alter ego, “Pan“, though this is admittedly a rather friendly version of its counterpart in Greek mythology. “Melody“, “Improvisation“ and the lightly tripping “Scherzo“ have the impressionistic fragrance typical of the era, though not necessarily of Merikanto.