Sibelius 4

[Mandryka]

I've started to get interested in this symphony after hearing a concert recording by Rosbaud earlier this week.

Can you suggest the landmark recordings of this symphony for me to explore, the ones which really have something special and new to say with it?

[vandermolen]

Beecham's is my favourite by far but it is a historic recording. In a class of its own as far as I'm concerned. I always have time for Berglund (EMI) as well. Karajan's DGG recording is highly rated, also Maazel's Decca version. But you have to hear the Beecham!

[Irons]

This comes with a health warning! Sanderling takes the 4th to another level of darkness then any other version I have heard.

[Jo498]

I don't know the Rosbaud but if you haven't check out Rosbaud's DG studio Sibelius recording, unfortunately the only major serious piece included is Tapiola.
As for the 4th, Herbert Kegel made an austere "modernist" recording that has been available cheaply in several guises and couplings from Berlin Classics.

[Mirror Image]

In my mind there are two phenomenal performances that gave me a whole new appreciation for this symphony and they are the following:

HvK/Berliners



Vänskä/Lahti SO

[TheGSMoeller]

I need the ending of the 4th to drag me along the ground to a slow death...Bernstein/NYP achieve this, and I love it.

[Biffo]

Walter Legge sent a copy of the 1953 Karajan/Philharmonia recording to Sibelius. Eventually, Sibelius sent a very appreciative letter back though Legge was sceptical as to whether Sibelius had actually listened to the discs.

Sibelius wrote -

Dear Friend
You have perhaps wondered why I have not written to you before and thanked you for the excellent recordings of my Fourth and Fifth Symphony.  I have now heard them many times and can only say I am happy. Karajan is a great master. His interpretation is superb, technically and musically.

With kindest regards and all good wishes
Yours sincerely,
Jean Sibelius

(dated Helsinki 11 May 1955)

[amw]

A while back the consensus seemed to be that the Lorin Maazel/Wiener Philharmoniker version was the reference recording. I'm not sure if people still believe that but I do still like the recording and think it's good.

[Mirror Image]

A while back the consensus seemed to be that the Lorin Maazel/Wiener Philharmoniker version was the reference recording. I'm not sure if people still believe that but I do still like the recording and think it's good.

I was never a fan of Maazel's Sibelius cycle. I'm not a huge fan of his conducting in general to be honest, but I think the best performance he's ever recorded was Ravel's L'enfant et les sortilèges on Deutsche Grammophon, which is still my reference recording for this work.

[relm1]

This comes with a health warning! Sanderling takes the 4th to another level of darkness then any other version I have heard.

Is this the same recording?

[Ghost of Baron Scarpia]

Maazel's Sibelus cycle with the Wiener Philharmoniker has been a standard recommendation since forever, but I prefer his later cycle with Pittsburgh (Sony).

[André]

This one:



Not issued commercially on cd, but easily obtainable as a cdr from Haydn House. 1954 mono recording by Ormandy and the Philadelphia Orchestra. Incredibly intense performances. Good sound.

http://www.haydnhouse.com/HH1.htm

More conventional and superbly recorded, Karajan's EMI version from 1978 is better IMO than his more 'comfortable' one on DG. This set has it, and the rest of his Sibelius from that era:



+ 1 for Maazel/Vienna, still holding its own after it was first issued.

[Archaic Torso of Apollo]

A problem I have with this piece is that I sometimes nod off during the stop-and-start slow movement. I've never found a recording that was able to rectify this completely, but Ashkenazy/Philharmonia probably made the best impression on me in that respect.

[Mandryka]

Vänskä/Lahti SO

This is interesting, very, thanks for mentioning it.

And indeed the other suggestions, but I can only listen to one at a time!

I grew up with Maazel Vienna and used to like the 4 a lot, going back now I thought that the Vienna sound somehow is too rich and lush for me -- the Pittsburgh orchestra is maybe more my style, we'll see later.

When the Vanska Sibelius was being released a friend of mine was reviewing them for the BBC. I remember he loved them and we listened to the 6th together in my car on a drive somewhere to somewhere else (Hereford to London maybe.) I was impressed but never followed it up. I should have.

[Biffo]

This is interesting, very, thanks for mentioning it.

And indeed the other suggestions, but I can only listen to one at a time!

I grew up with Maazel Vienna and used to like the 4 a lot, going back now I thought that the Vienna sound somehow is too rich and lush for me -- the Pittsburgh orchestra is maybe more my style, we'll see later.

When the Vanska Sibelius was being released a friend of mine was reviewing them for the BBC. I remember he loved them and we listened to the 6th together in my car on a drive somewhere to somewhere else (Hereford to London maybe.) I was impressed but never followed it up. I should have.

Vanska/Lahti is an excellent cycle and has been available at a bargain price from time to time. Well worth exploring.

[vandermolen]

I liked this version:

[DaveF]

I'm a great admirer of Rattle's whole cycle - no.4 is one of the few (along with Maazel) that really starts fortissimo as written.  Perhaps the CBSO are not the best orchestra to have recorded Sibelius, but Rattle really understands how the structures work.  The ending of his 6th is, as Elgar said of his violin concerto, "too romantic, but I love it!"

[Dima]

I find symphonies of Sibelius very russian, this is may be because Finland was part of Russia.
The 4th symphony is no exception (I mean Tchaikovsky influence in obvious and not so obvious ways.).
I listened the recommended version of Beecham which I don't know. It is very interesting, special and not ordinary.
I don't know such unordinary versions more, but I can recommend the best mainstream version I have heard - with conductor Anthony Collins.
Listen 3 movement with Anthony Collins: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Em0j6Yidys

[relm1]

I find symphonies of Sibelius very russian, this is may be because Finland was part of Russia.
The 4th symphony is no exception (I mean Tchaikovsky influence in obvious and not so obvious ways.).
I listened the recommended version of Beecham which I don't know. It is very interesting, special and not ordinary.
I don't know such unordinary versions more, but I can recommend the best mainstream version I have heard - with conductor Anthony Collins.
Listen 3 movement with Anthony Collins: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Em0j6Yidys

And it might be because you're Russian.

[Mirror Image]

This is interesting, very, thanks for mentioning it.

And indeed the other suggestions, but I can only listen to one at a time!

I grew up with Maazel Vienna and used to like the 4 a lot, going back now I thought that the Vienna sound somehow is too rich and lush for me -- the Pittsburgh orchestra is maybe more my style, we'll see later.

When the Vanska Sibelius was being released a friend of mine was reviewing them for the BBC. I remember he loved them and we listened to the 6th together in my car on a drive somewhere to somewhere else (Hereford to London maybe.) I was impressed but never followed it up. I should have.

Vänskä, Segerstam, and Berglund are all incredible in Sibelius and it's not because they're Finns, it's because they have lived and breathed this music all of their lives. Each of them brings something singular to the table. Definitely worth looking into.