Career
Raitio"s career as a composer reached its peak in the 1920s when eight large symphonic poems appeared from his pen. Influenced by Alexander Scriabin, his style was too modern for Nordic music circles, and his orchestral work Joutsenet (The Swans, Les Cygnes) of 1919 remained as his sole orchestral piece to be published (in 1938). Raitio"s profile as a composer slipped, as he concentrated on shorter works for smaller ensembles in the 1930s and 1940s.
In private, however, much effort was made by the composer to write operatic works.
Still today, his five operas are only known from the composer"s hand-written manuscripts.