Songs and Dances of Death

Songs of Dances and Death arranged for bass voice and orchestra by Kalevi Aho. This orchestral adaptation of Mussorgsky's brilliant song cycle was made in 1984 for the late Martti Talvela. The songs represent variations on the same storyline: Death arrives to take a life before its normal course has run. In all four Aho uses the instrumentation to highlight the movement towards Death's triumph and emphasise the cycle's dark psychological character.