At the time of writing this review, it has only been little more than a month since we lost this great Finnish composer Einojuhani Rautavaara to the darkness. He was 87. But why talk about death or count the years in relation to a composer of such stylistic breadth and a man who had a seemingly illimitable trust in the unconscious to bring forth ideas?

Take his recent song cycle for baritone and orchestra, Rubáiyát, commissioned in 2014 by the Wigmore Hall for the great Canadian bass-baritone Gerald Finley, who performs it on this recording. Rautavaara was a 20-something music student when he first encountered the poetry of Omar Khayyam and swore that he would one day set it to music. Decades later, here is such a cycle, as warm, romantic, lyrical and mysterious as Khayyam’s words, as rendered by his most famous English translator, Edward FitzGerald. Finley is, as you’d expect, the perfect interpreter, every word as distinct as it is coloured with hues mellow and bright.

Some of the cycle’s glowing sensuousness can also be found in Rautavaara’s 2014 Lorca setting, Balada, for tenor, mixed choir and orchestra. Lorca was another of the composer’s favourite poets. It is left...