FMQ 2/2007

"With the fiftieth anniversary of Sibelius' death falling this year, it is only natural that record companies should want to mark the occasion. BIS, though, has gone rather further than you might have expected."

One of the biggest influences on the Finnish music of 1969-76 was the strong political song movement. In a few years the socio-critical cabaret song born in the back-street theatres became transformed into the music of the extreme Left. The political movement petered out as the seventies drew to a close, but its songs can still be heard.

“Opera comes into its own when it presents the big emotions of ordinary people,” says composer Olli Kortekangas. “In opera you can say a lot about a certain time and the events that took place during it.” His opera Daddy’s Girl, which is to be premiered at Savonlinna in July, traces the history of Finnish independence.

On September 26, 1972 the Finnish Broadcasting Company (Yle) lifted the ban it had imposed over the years on individual records. It also decreed that the same principles as those for other material should be observed in choosing records for radio programmes.