The worklist of the Finnish composer Erkki Melartin (1875–1937) is well stocked: it contains six symphonies, the opera Aino, the ballet The Blue Pearl, a violin concerto, a number of symphonic poems and orchestral suites, chamber music and works for piano. He also wrote around 250 art-songs, often grouping settings of different languages and different dates into unrelated and sometimes untitled opus numbers. But what might be a nightmare for the musicologist is a treasure trove for the enthusiast for Nordic song, as this recital of some of the best of Melartin’s Swedish settings will prove. These settings of a range of Swedish poets and some Swedish translations of Tagore reveals music that often sounds rather like Sibelius tinged with French Impressionism.

This release marks the 80th anniversary of Melartin’s death and is also the last of a series of Toccata Classics releases marking the centenary of Finnish independence in 1917.

The Finnish lyric soprano Hedvig Paulig graduated with a DipRAM from the Royal Academy of Music in London and later completed her MMus at the Sibelius Academy in Helsinki. She won the first prize at the international Sibelius Song Competition in 2011. Ilmo Ranta studied at the Sibelius Academy with Liisa Pohjola and received his diploma in 1984.Currently he holds the position of lecturer in piano and chamber music in the Sibelius Academy. Jan Söderblom has been the first concertmaster of the Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra since 2015; he is also active as a conductor.