Olli Kortekangas

Olli Kortekangas excels at sensitive ensemble writing in his opera My Brother’s Keeper about the Finnish Civil War, but the work is hamstrung by its amateurish libretto.

This year marks the centenary of the Finnish Civil War. My Brother’s Keeper, a new opera by Olli Kortekangas, focuses on the tragic wartime events in Tampere.

This double album is the issue of three concerts given in Minnesota in February 2016, and Olli Kortekangas’ Migrations was a commission for that occasion. Migrations must have caused many in its initial audiences to reflect upon their own origins, and it retains its ability to touch the heart in this recording.

“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.

“One of the greatest problems confronting Finnish culture is the relative absence of critical attitudes with any measure of influence,” says the composer Olli Kortekangas in his article from FMQ 1-2/1985.