SKU: FG.55009-402-4

ISBN 979-0-55009-402-4.

According to Rautavaara The name of the work is a quotation from the libretto of my opera The House of the Sun: . . .like a butterfly in a dark autumn garden. . .. The motif to which these words are sung is the theme for the variations in the first movement. Their texture gradually grows and becomes denser. Following on without a break is a slow, poetic movement of even rhythms and dynamics. The quick, lively finale begins giocoso e leggiero. But autumn is also a time of colour, and of death. At the end the music thus turns into a festive dance con grandezza. Maybe it bears the echo of a sarabande to the dying splendour of summer - or as T.S. Eliot put it: late roses filled with early snow. Autumn Gardens was commissioned by the Scottish Chamber Orchestra and premiered at the London Proms in July 1999.