Aleksanteri Konni - Piru ja juomari

Description

Aleksanteri Könni and The Devil and the Drunkard

It was back in 1952, when I was still a student at the Sibelius Academy, that I came across Samuel Rinda-Nickolan Nuotti-kiriasta (From the Music Book of Samuel Rinda-Nickola), an old collection of folk tunes, and fell in love with its polska melodies. The result was the piano suite The Fiddlers. Its five pieces came to be regarded as a set that was published and still features in pianists? repertoire. But there were originally some other pieces in the Music Book for which there was no room in the piano suite. They too, were played, however, namely Aleksanteri Könni and The Devil and the Drunkard. The latter is unusual and different in that it has words, maybe for the player to recite during the performance.