Jean Sibelius Recordings
Sibelius was a late Romantic Composer, a Finnish Nationalist when Finland was being oppressively controlled by Tsarist Russia Politically and culturally when many of their elites felt closer ties with Sweden. Much of his music evokes the great subarctic Finnish Landscape, and Finnish legends provide a subplot for much of it.
Influences of Tchaikovsky and Bruckner abound but he had a distinctive voice which grew more idiosyncratic through his creative lifespan. He paints on vast Orchestral canvases, with powerful brass, cold and piercing woodwinds and rich shimmering strings.
His best music will also test your system. The Finnish Conductor Osmo Vanska had released a set of his music on the audiophile label BIS with a relatively small provincial Finnish Orchestra. I heard him conduct Tapiola, perhaps Sibelius most evocative score, in Chicago soon after. Clearly the CSO was several leagues ahead of the Lahti Symphony, but I couldn't believe how big and vast the sonic landscape was, truly evoking the limitless, pitiless Arctic Forests. I have never been able to get any recording to even begin to approximate that sound on my system.
Finnish musicians have taken the lead, and continue to do so, but Herbert von Karajan and Colin Davis (particularly in Boston) delivered superb performances as well. I didn't much care for Leonard Bernstein in Sibelius, but his recording of the Violin Concerto with Francescati is incandescent. I really dislike the current practice of slowing this work down and milking it. Francescati and Bernstein are Hell For Leather in one of the greatest recordings of anything.
Any recommendations/favorites amongst the Sibelius recordings, both for performance and for sonics?
I haven't listened to that recording of Kullervo because I don't like the music, having tried a few prior recordings. You do realize that in Classical Music there tend to be multiple recordings by different performers of the same piece of music.
I am 100% digital, CDs, SACD, Blu Ray, streaming, etc. Some higher resolution but most at CD redbook resolution
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The Davis Boston series is very strong. I prefer it to the LSO cycle . I have the Ormandy, and the Philadelphia Orchestra was great in Sibelius.. I agree that the Makela cycle is very good, would like to hear what he does with Sibelius in another 15 years. von Karajan on either EMI or DG is peerless in the Fourth |
I haven’t gotten around to listening to Rattle yet. The reviews have been mixed, with the British Critics offering their predictable raves and elsewhere some dissent. The newer Sibelius that I have been comparing is Makela vs Rouvali. Berglund did 3 sets. I have the first, from Bournemouth. They are very different, especially the chamber set. Sibelius Third is one of my favorites. It sounds like he is trying to absorb Bruckner and discard the Tchaikovsky. The Forth is fascinating as he was fighting cancer and does have that looking-into-the-abyss feel to it, while the Fifth seems to breathe a soy of relief. The Sixth is the hardest nut to crack for me. It’s his Pastorale, where a trip into the woods of the North Woods and Lakes is filled with luminescent beauty, whereas in the Seventh and Tapiola the Norse Gods seem to be plotting to use those same forests for malevolent ends |
Yeah, the first two symphonies are great works, but for me they became over familiar as I played them to death and didn't move on with Sibelius for a couple of decades. The First is an outstanding First Symphony filled with great music. The Colin Davis BSO recording is superb with deep brooding strings. As I've said before the debts to Tchaikovsky are obvious and Sibelius realy finds his own voice in the 3rd. The Second was revolutionary for it's time, especially the First Movement which dispenses with an introduction and transition material between the themes. And in the last movement that you say goes on forever, we hear Sibelius absorbing the Bruckner influence, of hammering away repetitively and then changing key signatures at the climactic moment, producing that "sunrise" (others refer to it as orgasmic) sensation. |
Actually, no. The above is a recording of an early Sibelius work, one that he withdrew after publishing. It’s kind of like The Beatles with Tony Sheridan album. Kullervo has its fans but I’m not among them. If you are new to Sibelius I recommend exploring the following. Tone Poems (Basically works for Orchestra that aren’t Symphonies or Concertos): Finlandia, Tapiola,The Swan of Tuonela, En Saga Symphonies 1-7. Number 5 might be the most immediately accessible Violin Concerto
@designsfx if you have a streaming service you can easily explore many recordings of all of the above The conductor in the recording you referenced is named Osmo Vanska. He irecords for the label BIS. BIS hired him to record every note the Composer ever wrote for Orchestra, back in the nineties, with a relatively small Orchestra from the city of Lahti. He subsequently became the Conductor of the Minnesota Orchestra, and BIS is re recording much of the Sibelius this time in SACD. As you can tell from the other posts in the thread there are many other Conductors that have recorded Sibelius. Another excellent place to start would be Herbert von Karajan and the Berlin Philharmonic in the four tone poems that I listed above if you need more help don’t be afraid to ask. |
I listened to the Rattle set yesterday, or 1-5. There is a lot of pleasure to be had here but in general Sir Simon tends to put pads on Sibelius sharp elbows. Voluptuous playing, lots of rubato. I prefer Bergland’s cold bracing Nordic shower to Rattle’s lushness, but this music can withstand many interpretive approaches. |
