What are you listening to now?

[North Star]

Well, we shall see. I'm going to a movie in the evening, so everything needs to be finished by 5.

I think an overview, like:
10:30 - Kullervo (1892)*
11:30 - Symphony No. 1 (1899)
12:15 - Swanwhite (1908)*
12:45 - Night Ride and Sunrise (1909)
1:15 - Voces intimae (1909)
1:45 - Luonnotar (1913)
2:00 - Symphony No. 5 (1915-19)
2:45 - Andante festivo, quartet version (1922)*
3:00 - Symphony No. 6 (1923)
3:30 - Symphony No. 7 (1924)
encore - Andante festivo, orchestra version (1938)
*will be first-ever listens for me, and Voces intimae will be a first-listen-since-college

And with time remaining, Folke Grasbeck's 2015 recital of Sibelius piano music on the Ainola piano??

That's a lot of Sibelius. 
You've never heard Kullervo before? That explains why you only scheduled 60 minutes for it...


Thread duty
Sibelius
Sonata in F major, JS 178 (1889) for violin and piano
Jaakko Kuusisto
Folke Gräsbeck

[Todd]

How do you like this as compared with the famed Richter recording?

I assume you mean the '58 Sofia recital, in which case I prefer Kissin.  But then, I've never really warmed to the '58 recital.  Can't put my finger on it.  Sometimes I love Richter, sometimes not so much.

[Marsch MacFiercesome]

I have heard other similar opinions of those Oramo recordings. I'm sure he has improved a lot since then, but I'm not keen to hear the oldies. As for Mattila, well, she's no Soile Isokoski or Helena Juntunen, both do better in the work IIRC.

(I don't see any reason not to translate 'saari' to 'the island', BTW)

What 'would you' translate "Saari" to then? . . .

As far as Oramo's Sibelius goes, I think his virile and slightly-aggressive Third on Warner with Birmingham is great- as is his Pohjola's Daughter, which has an animating drive which I haven't heard anywhere else (aside from the old monaural Koussevitsky/Boston recording, which is shrill and austere sounding)- and is my all-time favorite.

He did a live Sibelius Fifth with the VPO that has a lot of elan vital to it- especially in the first movement- although I prefer the caressing contours of the 1960 Karajan/Philharmonia even more, as it has the same amount of energy to it- but with a more beautifully-balanced phrasing to it.

[Florestan]

From the big Heifetz box.

Sibelius, what else? 

[North Star]

What 'would you' translate "Saari" to then? . . .

I would translate "Lemminkäinen ja saaren neidot" as "Lemminkäinen and the maidens of the island".

[Brian]

You've never heard Kullervo before? That explains why you only scheduled 60 minutes for it...

Uh-oh.


EDIT: Here goes nothing!

[Sergeant Rock]

Sibelius Symphony No.7, Szell conducting the Cleveland, recorded live in Helsinki 1965




Sarge

[Marsch MacFiercesome]

I would translate "Lemminkäinen ja saaren neidot" as "Lemminkäinen and the maidens of the island".

Got'cha.

- I'll add that to my conversational Rolodex.

Thanks.

[North Star]

Your welcome, Marsch.


Sibelius
Four Pieces, Op. 78
Sonatina in E major, Op. 80
Nils-Erik Sparf (vn) & Bengt Forsberg (pf)

[Sergeant Rock]

Sibelius Valse triste op.44 and Tapiola op.112, Karajan conducting the Berlin Phil




Sarge

[Brian]

Uh-oh.


EDIT: Here goes nothing!

Dude, this music is super awesome! And I like it way better than Lemminkainen.

[GuybrushThreepwood]

So little Sibelius in my collection makes me feel sad, so sad I will have to expand the collections. 101 Sibelius recommendations?

[Sergeant Rock]

Dude, this music is super awesome!

Thank god. I can breathe again 

Sarge

[Karl Henning]

Dude, this music is super awesome! And I like it way better than Lemminkainen.

+ 1

[Tsaraslondon]

When it comes to Luonnotar, the Gibson/SNO with Phyllis Bryn-Julson on Chandos is still my standard.

A disc you put me onto, if I remember correctly and I live it immensely. My standard too, whilst I acknowledge that there may be other ways of doing it. Flagstad recorded it, and there is also a very interesting version on youtube, sung by Schwarzkopf, which is so utterly different, it could almost be a different work. Initially I thought her dramatic take on the music all wrong, but I've come round to thinking that both the Bryn-Julson and the Schwarzkopf versions have their own validity. Incidentyally, though a severely self-critical artist, Schwarzkopf herself was reportedly rather pleased with this performance. Great music can of course withstand more than one interpretation.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_FyTAGwyRCM

[Tsaraslondon]

Beautiful talking points for this Tristan, Greg. . . . . . 'sold.'

I really do appreciate all of your opera breakdowns- and I can't tell you how much I learn from them; and how much joy and excitement I've had in listening to so much of what you run up the flagpole. 

I would not be going out on a limb in saying that you're the 'Anna Wintour' (founder and Editor Supreme- praise be her name- of Vogue) of the operatic world- you really do separate the 'Supremely-and-Sublimely-Gorgeous' from the merely 'beautiful-and-distinguished.' Only the best of the best makes it on to your editing table.

The famed 'September issue' of Vogue really should have your opera breakdowns for the year. Ha.  Ha.  Ha. 

Anyway, I can't wait to hear Linda Ester Gray's Isolde and to luxuriate in the gorgeously engineered Decca sound.

Great news. I so look forward to the discovery of what she brings to the table in Act II. 

Thank you. And I feel sure you will really enjoy this set.

[Que]

Making further inroads into this set: 

[asin]B008CWQYU8[/asin]

Q

[Brian]

Moving on to Sibelius' First Symphony, in by FAR my favorite performance:

[North Star]

So little Sibelius in my collection makes me feel sad, so sad I will have to expand the collections. 101 Sibelius recommendations?

This is an excellent set to get a good portion of the best known Sibelius works, the biggest omission is probably the tone poem Nightride and Sunrise.

[asin]B000KC849W[/asin]

[Sadko]

Honestly, I find nothing wrong with that cover.

+2

-1 

Cheap, IMO.