The Snowshoed Sibelius

[SurprisedByBeauty]

Sakari has been supplanted on Naxos by Inkinen anyway. 

Replaced or succeeded, perhaps. But, despite your less than happy experience with the 6/7 combo, I'd venture to say that Inkinen (good in his own way) has not supplanted Sakari. Like Mirror Image, I'm quite fond of that cycle (and like him, I don't listen to it THAT often. But will NOW. It's the poor man's Vanska I, in some ways. Which isn't a bad thing.

My reference 7th, for the time being, remains Segerstam II.

[Mirror Image]

I'm sure there is wisdom to be garnered from this post, but I have a really hard time reading such a massive wall of text. It's giving me a headache just thinking about it. 

+1

I've done a lot of reading on Sibelius in the past, but I'm not reading through that jumbled mess.

[Jo498]

If you scroll a little down, the section for each symphony are actually not long, except for #4 they fit all on one screen with my standard resolution.

[amw]

I did read the entire thing but we clearly have pretty different tastes, with a few exceptions (Blomstedt and Ormandy). My recommendations would definitely include:

No.7 - Magi/Uppsala, Szell/Cleveland, possibly Maazel/Vienna
No.6 - Rosbaud/Köln, Berglund/Bournemouth, or possibly Barbirolli/Hallé
No.5 - Berglund/Bournemouth, Ormandy 1954, possibly Kondrashin/Concertgebouw
No.4 - Szell/Cleveland, Maazel/Vienna, Magi/Uppsala, Sanderling/Berlin, possibly also Ormandy 1954
No.3 - Mustonen/Helsinki, Blomstedt/San Francisco
No.2 - possibly Bernstein/NY but I don't have strong feelings
No.1 - Järvi/Paris (admittedly this didn't exist in 2009, nor did the Rouvali/Göteborg that some people also like as the new standard), Sanderling/Berlin

Someday I should analyse why these specific choices

(The Szell is this one, I have no idea why it hasn't been made more widely available)

[Mirror Image]

I did read the entire thing but we clearly have pretty different tastes, with a few exceptions (Blomstedt and Ormandy). My recommendations would definitely include:

No.7 - Magi/Uppsala, Szell/Cleveland, possibly Maazel/Vienna
No.6 - Rosbaud/Köln, Berglund/Bournemouth, or possibly Barbirolli/Hallé
No.5 - Berglund/Bournemouth, Ormandy 1954, possibly Kondrashin/Concertgebouw
No.4 - Szell/Cleveland, Maazel/Vienna, Magi/Uppsala, Sanderling/Berlin, possibly also Ormandy 1954
No.3 - Mustonen/Helsinki, Blomstedt/San Francisco
No.2 - possibly Bernstein/NY but I don't have strong feelings
No.1 - Järvi/Paris (admittedly this didn't exist in 2009, nor did the Rouvali/Göteborg that some people also like as the new standard), Sanderling/Berlin

Someday I should analyse why these specific choices

(The Szell is this one, I have no idea why it hasn't been made more widely available)

Some interesting choices. The reason why I prefer the Finns mainly boils down to the kind of temperament they bring to the music. I do like hearing different kinds of performances like the overheated Maazel/Wiener or Bernstein/New York Phil. (Columbia/Sony) cycles, but I always return to the Finns.

[Mirror Image]

Really, really impressed with the first recording of a projected cycle:



The 1st symphony receives a great performance, but, truth be told, I'm not the greatest fan of this work (the 2nd is where my ears begin to really perk up). En Saga, however, is a long-standing favorite and the performance here from Rouvali and the Gothenburgers is scorching. The climaxes are so exciting and the atmosphere of the work is captured wonderfully by the engineers. So definitely a win/win for this installment and I'm looking forward to hearing their next Sibelius recording.

[vers la flamme]

Really, really impressed with the first recording of a projected cycle:



The 1st symphony receives a great performance, but, truth be told, I'm not the greatest fan of this work (the 2nd is where my ears begin to really perk up). En Saga, however, is a long-standing favorite and the performance here from Rouvali and the Gothenburgers is scorching. The climaxes are so exciting and the atmosphere of the work is captured wonderfully by the engineers. So definitely a win/win for this installment and I'm looking forward to hearing their next Sibelius recording.

I love the first symphony. I've heard really great things about this recording, may have to look out for it. Can't say I'm familiar with Santtu-Matias Rouvali, but that is a cool name and a great head of hair. 

[relm1]

Really, really impressed with the first recording of a projected cycle:



The 1st symphony receives a great performance, but, truth be told, I'm not the greatest fan of this work (the 2nd is where my ears begin to really perk up). En Saga, however, is a long-standing favorite and the performance here from Rouvali and the Gothenburgers is scorching. The climaxes are so exciting and the atmosphere of the work is captured wonderfully by the engineers. So definitely a win/win for this installment and I'm looking forward to hearing their next Sibelius recording.

But the image is so, so silly!

[Mirror Image]

I love the first symphony. I've heard really great things about this recording, may have to look out for it. Can't say I'm familiar with Santtu-Matias Rouvali, but that is a cool name and a great head of hair. 

It's not that I don't like the 1st, it just doesn't hit me in all the right spots. But, to be fair, it's the only symphony from Sibelius that I haven't spent a lot of time with (the other being the 2nd). If this recording of the 1st and En Saga is any indication of what his Sibelius will be like, then I'm rather excited to hear the rest. Let's hope he can keep up this momentum.

[Mirror Image]

For those that like Karajan's Sibelius, which recordings do you prefer? The ones on EMI (Warner) or DG? I own all of Karajan's Sibelius recordings and I'm thinking of doing some comparisons. I'd love to know which recordings are more to your liking?

[vandermolen]

For those that like Karajan's Sibelius, which recordings do you prefer? The ones on EMI (Warner) or DG? I own all of Karajan's Sibelius recordings and I'm thinking of doing some comparisons. I'd love to know which recordings are more to your liking?

I like this set very much John:

[aukhawk]

For those that like Karajan's Sibelius, which recordings do you prefer? The ones on EMI (Warner) or DG? I own all of Karajan's Sibelius recordings and I'm thinking of doing some comparisons. I'd love to know which recordings are more to your liking?

I think The EMI/Warner 4th is the very peak of Karajan's Sibelius output.  Essential.  For the 6th it's a wash - better sound on Warner but I like the performance on DG.  Otherwise the DG recordings are very fine.

[vers la flamme]

I like this set very much John:

I just bought this one and really enjoy it so far. Amazing 4th, and a great Swan of Tuonela.

[relm1]

For those that like Karajan's Sibelius, which recordings do you prefer? The ones on EMI (Warner) or DG? I own all of Karajan's Sibelius recordings and I'm thinking of doing some comparisons. I'd love to know which recordings are more to your liking?

The EMI tone poem set is excellent - probably my favorite versions of those works.


Also love the Violin Concerto on DG, a very Germanic/dramatic reading.

[Brian]

The detail in the Rouvali recording that sticks out in my memory is the first movement of the symphony - right when the ball gets rolling, so to speak, the trombones have this delightful snap as they do little mini crescendos on their notes.

[Mirror Image]

I like this set very much John:

I do, too, Jeffrey. For me, the 4th in Karajan's earlier DG set captures the bleakness and general grim mood of this symphony like no other. The only performance I didn't think much of in this set was Tapiola and this is because I don't think Karajan dug deep enough into the work. Even though the audio quality is much better, one listen to Segerstam's performance on Ondine and this was all it took for me to realize just how incredible this work truly is. No other performance has done that for me (yet).

[Mirror Image]

I think The EMI/Warner 4th is the very peak of Karajan's Sibelius output.  Essential.  For the 6th it's a wash - better sound on Warner but I like the performance on DG.  Otherwise the DG recordings are very fine.

I think Karajan's 4th on EMI is much warmer in mood than earlier DG performance. I like the DG performance much better because of the icy silence that was able to get from the music --- you can almost feel the chill coming off the instruments. This, of course, isn't to say the EMI doesn't have it's own merits, but the DG performance still mesmerizes me.

[vandermolen]

I do, too, Jeffrey. For me, the 4th in Karajan's earlier DG set captures the bleakness and general grim mood of this symphony like no other. The only performance I didn't think much of in this set was Tapiola and this is because I don't think Karajan dug deep enough into the work. Even though the audio quality is much better, one listen to Segerstam's performance on Ondine and this was all it took for me to realize just how incredible this work truly is. No other performance has done that for me (yet).

Karajan's 'Tapiola' is very good but perhaps not great. I remember being very impressed with Segerstam's recordings of the work, including the earlier release, coupled with Symphony No.3 on Chandos I think. Berglund's Philharmonia performance on EMI is, in its rather undersated way, very moving as well.

[SymphonicAddict]

Following the recommendation from Mirror Image, I gave to Voces intimae quartet a listen from this recording:



I can't understand how I had overlooked this so eloquent work. It's much more memorable and intense than I had thought of at first. The Sibelius trademarks are undoubtedly there. The heartfelt 3rd movement is the core of the piece, supremely poetic.

Now I remembered that my introduction to this work was through the Emerson SQ on DG. Definitely this stuff doesn't seem to be of their interpretative affinity because the recording I listened to was much more akin to the Sibelius idiom. It looked like they breathed and understood that music perfectly.

Many thanks to Mirror Image to suggest this wonderful piece. I really enjoyed this.

[Mirror Image]

Following the recommendation from Mirror Image, I gave to Voces intimae quartet a listen from this recording:



I can't understand how I had overlooked this so eloquent work. It's much more memorable and intense than I had thought of at first. The Sibelius trademarks are undoubtedly there. The heartfelt 3rd movement is the core of the piece, supremely poetic.

Now I remembered that my introduction to this work was through the Emerson SQ on DG. Definitely this stuff doesn't seem to be of their interpretative affinity because the recording I listened to was much more akin to the Sibelius idiom. It looked like they breathed and understood that music perfectly.

Many thanks to Mirror Image to suggest this wonderful piece. I really enjoyed this.

Excellent to read, but I hope you can revisit this work and listen the Sibelius Academy Quartet's performance of Voces intimae. That set you posted above contains the newer performance from the New Helsinki Quartet and it's not as good as the Sibelius Academy Quartet's performance, IMHO. Do try to listen to Tempera Quartet and the Gabrieli Quartet as well. You will find these three performances right up your alley. Anyway, I'm happy you gave this work another shot --- yes, that Emerson Quartet performance wasn't very good at all. They definitely don't really show much interest in Sibelius' idiom.