The Snowshoed Sibelius

Started by Dancing Divertimentian, April 16, 2007, 08:39:57 PM

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Mark

#200
I've just recently downloaded the reissued Rattle/CBSO (EMI) set of Sibelius symphonies (plus one or two tone poems). I'm looking forward to listening to them, especially as I've so far heard and been very impressed by Rattle's take on the Second Symphony. I have numerous recordings of this work (though not, I'm ashamed to admit, the Berglund or Blomstedt), and with many of them, I get the impression that the musicians are playing the notes but not interpreting the music. Rattle - and even more so, Vanska - gives an account that sounds positively alive and makes me hear the work as though new, enriching my understanding and enjoyment of it no end. :)

Tapio Dimitriyevich Shostakovich

#201
Quote from: vandermolen on September 04, 2008, 06:50:39 AMI like Maazel's VPO Tapiola because of the very slow phrasing of the storm sequence.

Interesting you say "storm sequence"... It may also be turbulence amongst the wood-sprites. :D

EDIT: A bigger Tapiola review is here.

This performance btw? Don't know this one, because usually I avoid buying that old performances.


vandermolen

#202
Yes, I think that it's probably the Wood-Sprites too  :)

Yes, that is the CD I meant. Don't be put off by it's age as the performances are great and the remastering excellent. But it is that slower-than-usual storm-sequence in Tapiola which is the highlight for me.

By the way, for anyone that doesn't know it, Moeran's Symphony has a great Tapiola-like-storm-sequence in the last movement. I'd recommend this work to anyone who likes Sibelius.
"Courage is going from failure to failure without losing enthusiasm" (Churchill).

'The test of a work of art is, in the end, our affection for it, not our ability to explain why it is good' (Stanley Kubrick).

John Copeland

#203
I am ashamed to say I listened to Sibelius's "In Memoriam" for the very first time today (from the Segerstam set).  A magnificent piece of work - Sibelius at his best. ;D
Perfect use of sonorous brass, well timed gaps, nice (and appropriately dark) movements by the stings up and down the scale, building deliberately to fitting conclusions...but only to die at the end.
Wow.   :o ;D

John Copeland

#204
I don't know what Davis BSO/LSO has over this. 
This is by far the most dramatic and exciting and grand Sibelius collection out there.  The difference to almost every other box set I have is near palpable.  *****

Segerstam DNRSO - sometimes sounds off too slow, but a dynamic interpretation nonetheless - would be better if he didn't take so many liberties here and there. ***
Davis - BSO / LSO - Very nice, as Blomstedt below, somewhat more special through 'Davis Power' but why is he so revered as a Sibelian? ****
Blomstedt SFSO - Wide, breathy and excellent, but still nothing special. ***
Maazel - PSO - aha, I don't have his VPO set which is very highly regarded indeed, but I do have his Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, which has special moments but not 'even' enough to be regarded as a great set. **
Rattle - CBSO - Rattle doing magic with sonics but not with Sibelius.  ***
Vanska / Jarvi - Lahti - Such a very different approach to Ashkenazy, but well on the money, clear and broad melodics make for great listening. *****

M forever

A lot of the stuff in the Ashlenazy box is indeed very exciting, thanks to the driven, intense character of the performances and the great contributions of the orchestra, especially in #1 (the ending of the first movement really sounds like an avalanche or huge chunks of brass ice breaking off a glacier. But there is also a lot of very fine detail in Sibelius' music and a lot of the musical gestures are very terse and to the point, and that is where Ashkenazy with all the sonic excitement he generates from the orchestra sometimes is not so good. You should also listen to Maazel's WP cycle which has a lot of that kind of excitement (and very massive playing in some pieces, again particularly in the 1st) but more detail and specific athmosphere. It won't hurt you to get to know Berglund's HPO and Sanderling's BSO cycles either, believe me!

John Copeland

Quote from: M forever on September 28, 2008, 11:40:52 AM
A lot of the stuff in the Ashlenazy box is indeed very exciting, thanks to the driven, intense character of the performances and the great contributions of the orchestra, especially in #1 (the ending of the first movement really sounds like an avalanche or huge chunks of brass ice breaking off a glacier. But there is also a lot of very fine detail in Sibelius' music and a lot of the musical gestures are very terse and to the point, and that is where Ashkenazy with all the sonic excitement he generates from the orchestra sometimes is not so good. You should also listen to Maazel's WP cycle which has a lot of that kind of excitement (and very massive playing in some pieces, again particularly in the 1st) but more detail and specific athmosphere. It won't hurt you to get to know Berglund's HPO and Sanderling's BSO cycles either, believe me!

Thank you M, just the kid of feedback I'd hoped for.  I will indeed be looking out for Berglund HPO and the Snaderling.

M forever

Yes, but "look out" for Maazel's WP cycle first. Be careful though when you listen to the 4th symphony, this version is so bleak and dark, if you are already in a bad mood, it might make you jump out of the window. Other highlights of this cycle are the very massive and exciting 1st and the 3rd (it is good to hear the soaring horn figures at the beginning and in the recapitulation of the first movement played by people who can actually really play them, for a change), and the epic 7th. The highlight of the Berglund/HPO cycle for me is the uniquely athmospheric 6th. But the other symphonies in both boxes are very good, too. Then Sanderling cycle is generally a little low key and analytic, but it is also phenomenally well recorded. You will be surprised by how much detail can actually be captured in a recording, and how "natural" these sound.

Moldyoldie

#208
(Pasted from "What Are You Listening To?".)


Sibelius: Symphony No. 1; Symphony No. 5
BBC Symphony Orchestra
Sir Malcolm Sargent, cond.
EMI

By the by, this CD was something of a bargain bin epiphany pour moi in a much earlier time of my Sibelian experience; it occurred after having been thoroughly discouraged from ever again listening to the Sibelius Symphony No. 5 by the dour and depressing performance heard on the recording by Esa-Pekka Salonen sometime in the late '80s.  Whether that would still be the case is questionable, but even today, there's no subverting the fact that these are among the sunniest and most optimistic performances of these two popular symphonies one's ears will likely ever hear.  Sargent and the BBCSO come to both sporting yellow-tinged glasses and ineffable grins.

It's almost pointless attempting to differentiate between the two works as performed here. Symphony No. 1 is as bracing as ever with a steadily implacable undercurrent of pulse and forward momentum.  There's absolutely no sense of overt affectation other than what seemingly springs forth inevitably from the score -- except, perhaps, for an incredibly relentless helter-skelter conclusion to the Allegro third movement which has the orchestra grasping for ensemble and the listener gasping for breath! 

The Symphony No. 5 here also doesn't "take time to smell the roses", mainly because Sargent and the orchestra smell the roses from the get-go in a straightforward reading of the first movement which could probably benefit from some "strategic phrasing" by Sargent to help accentuate the marvelous build to the movement's powerful coda.  As performed here, this "power" seems diminished by the lack of contrast with what precedes it, and the strings don't possess the necessary heft to make for a truly visceral crescendo, something I listen for with great anticipation.  Another thing is disconcerting, that being the extended silent pauses between tracks of the symphony's movements instead of the more attaca approach which I've become used to.  The andante second movement commences in an unusually measured fashion when considering the performance in toto.  I must admit, however, that in the grand scheme of the performance, these prove to be quibbles as the symphony is brought home in the same sunny fashion in which it commenced, and indeed, as it was predominantly conducted throughout.

The recording quality from the late '50s displays a modicum of tape hiss and is decidedly bass shy, but with fine midrange presence and not too much tinniness on the top end; no one could possibly mistake this for the very best recording of similar vintage.  Still, there's fine presence and "personality" in the winds especially, lending well to these...yes, "uniquely cheery" performances.
"I think the problem with technology is that people use it because it's around.  That is disgusting and stupid!  Please quote me."
- Steve Reich

Moldyoldie

(Pasted from "What are You Listening To?")

Sibelius: Symphony No. 4
Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra
Paavo Berglund, cond.

Sibelius: Symphony No. 5
Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra
Jorma Panula, cond.
FINLANDIA

These recordings originally date from 1968 and are thoroughly inside the idiom.   A few months ago, I heard Berglund's most recent commercial recording of the Symphony No. 4 with the Chamber Orchestra of Europe (also on the Finlandia label) and commented on how leaden and uninvolving the performance was compared to most others I've heard.  Well, this performance with his erstwhile band, the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra, presents much the same interpretation, perhaps even darker and more expansive, but with some much needed heft and resonance throughout the timbral spectrum, especially in those growling double-basses and expressive massed strings, which here are unusually subdued and hence even more forbidding.  They continue on in painting the bleakest possible sonic landscape throughout the entire opening movement.  Even the brief allegro molto vivace second movement hardly offers a respite from the bleakness.  It makes Berglund's incredibly forlorn, but impressively well-wrought il tempo largo third movement an extended expression of utter despair. I'm trying to remember if even Karajan, Bernstein, and a few other notables were this cold and dour in their memorable traversals of this landscape.  The figurative light breaking through the dark clouds in the beginning of the finale, accented here with softly rung glockenspiel, hardly brings a feeling of redemption. Instead, Berglund offers merely an extended baiting glimpse of hope before foundering in a wave of dissonance.  Orchestral balances are impressively unique here in conjuring this effect. The dynamic suddenly shifts to a jarring forte late in the movement, but quickly subsides into a coda suggesting hope was but a taunting zephyr -- the inexorable gloom returns, soon fading, along with all else, on a hushed closing whimper.  Now I know what was missing from that COE recording:  It makes one believe that this, Sibelius' masterpiece of personal expression, is best heard in large swaths of varying greys as opposed to mere pen & ink, and it's certainly worth the hearing for anyone with an affinity for this symphony.  I've not heard Berglund's two other recordings with the Bournemouth and Helsinki orchestras on EMI.

Noted Finnish conducting guru Jorma Panula was music director of the Helsinki Phiharmonic at this time and offers up a unique and musically insightful rendering of the popular Symphony No. 5.  The opening clarion horn slowly unfurls and the succeeding winds display a delightfully earthy quality seemingly straight from a Finnish bog -- it's difficult to adequately describe and I'm loathe to think it's merely due to the power of musical suggestion.  The opening movement develops most effectively up to the first appearance of the so-called swan hymn, through which the tempo upshifts to a delightful lilt.  From there, the build to the movement's coda is superbly realized with just the right amount of tempo and dynamic adjustments to bring maximum effect to the powerful ostinato crescendo, launched abruptly and executed with superb ensemble -- yowza!  Following a fine andante second movement, the allegro molto finale is taken at the most relaxed and softly expressive measure I ever remember hearing!   The final swan hymn has brass braying with that marvelous earthy quality heard earlier in the winds -- more power of suggestion?  I don't think so, this is the real McCoy!  The symphony's concluding bursts are tight and terse, bringing an end to this uniquely satisfying performance.  My not-always-acute-sense is that this is the kind of performance Esa-Pekka Salonen "meant" to produce for CBS with the Philharmonia, instead of the...well, never mind.
"I think the problem with technology is that people use it because it's around.  That is disgusting and stupid!  Please quote me."
- Steve Reich

karlhenning

Quote from: Guy RickardsThe Third Symphony, dedicated to [Granville] Bantock, was completed on his return and given its première in Helsinki before September [1907] was out, alongside Pohjola's Daughter and the suite from Belshazzar's Feast.  The last two were received more enthusiastically by the audience than the austere, pared-down textures of the symphony, with its oddly elusive atmosphere, restrained mid-nineteenth-century orchestration and telescoped scherzo-and-finale.  [Karl] Flodin, though, was delighted, calling the composer 'a Classical master' and the music 'revolutionary, new and truly Sibelian'.  Flodin was right — the Third Symphony was indeed a quietly radical work, where all the most extraordinary activity occurred below the surface, unlike in the Second with its grander, romantic mien.  Harold Truscott believed it to be the first Sibelius symphony to evince 'complete mastery' and was 'the key to all that followed it', while others like Julian Herbage have commented on its innovative key-scheme, harmonic side-slips and the individuality of the finale.  In many ways Symphony № 3 accorded with Busoni's ideal of 'Young Classicality', a return to the musical spirit of the past and not to be confused with the mannered neo-classicism that became the rage amongst composers of the post-World War I years.  As such, the Third — the first of the truly great Sibelius symphonies — has been generally misunderstood and did not succeed with audiences or the bulk of critics to anything like the degree of the First or Second.  So complete was the incomprehension that greeted the work that its lack of success was at least partially attributed by many to the composer's use of folk elements, whereas in fact this was intentionally the most cosmopolitan and international score Sibelius had yet attempted to compose.

Jean Sibelius, (Phaidon, 1997), pp.91-92

karlhenning

Just finished the Rickards book;  excellent little 'handbook' bio.  I found it illuminating.

karlhenning

I've been very selective, or very lucky, or both, in my Sibelius exploration.  Rickards makes the point that over the course of his career, Janne had to write a fair amount of 'fluff' to raise ready money (the various sums of Sibelius's debt which Rickards mentions from time to time through the course of the composer's life are nothing short of hair-raising), and I have been fortunate never to hear anything by the Mighty Finn answering to the description 'fluff'.

(The Valse triste is light, and a minor work; but it is not fluff!)

Sergeant Rock

Quote from: karlhenning on January 02, 2009, 07:19:27 AM
I have been fortunate never to hear anything by the Mighty Finn answering to the description 'fluff'.

There is fluff, and then there is great fluff. Sibelius composed the latter  8)

Sarge
the phone rings and somebody says,
"hey, they made a movie about
Mahler, you ought to go see it.
he was as f*cked-up as you are."
                               --Charles Bukowski, "Mahler"

Bu

Quote from: eyeresist on September 03, 2008, 08:07:31 PM
I don't listen to the tone poems much. I don't think any come close to the quality of the symphonies.


Haven't given those pieces enough attention, for whatever reason; hope to rectify that with this disc:


karlhenning

Quote from: Bu on January 11, 2009, 12:29:38 PM
Haven't given those pieces enough attention, for whatever reason; hope to rectify that with this disc:



A nice two-fer, indeed!

Bu

Quote from: karlhenning on January 11, 2009, 02:00:07 PM
A nice two-fer, indeed!

True that, Dr. Karl.   For a good price, too!   :D

I think I'll give it a spin after the Beethoven is done playing.

Tapio Dimitriyevich Shostakovich

#217
Quote from: James on January 11, 2009, 05:42:55 AM

Oh, yes. "ISmeetsJS.jpg" - Who's I.S.?

Bu

Prince Igor.  Sometimes just called by his last name, "Stravinsky."