# Väinö Raitio



## Portamento (Dec 8, 2016)

*Väinö Raitio* (April 15, 1891 - September 10, 1945) was one of the pioneer composers of Finnish modernism in the early 20th century. Best known for a series of eight tone poems completed in the 1920s, "his orchestration skills and use of tonal colors" is remarkable. "Raitio got very good feedback for his early works both from music critics and the audience." However, "because of the crashing reviews of his expressionistic tone poem _Antigone_ (Op. 23), Raitio received a reputation as too modernistic and abstruse" - his works gradually were left out of the concert repertoire. The composer's position as an outsider was also fueled by his introverted nature and poor health. After his death, he was almost completely forgotten, until the 1990s, when "a new interest towards Raitio arose."


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