The Snowshoed Sibelius

[DavidRoss]

Sakari, Barbirolli, and Vanska. (I gave away my RCA set of Davis/LSO, as a total washout). And I get along with all of them fine, but feel that the ultimate Sibelius experience is still out there somewhere.

This might be more up your alley, Alan, and you can listen to it through Naxos streaming:

[kishnevi]

So I'm browsing through a selection of 'Bargains' on Amazon, and I stumble across this:



2 CDs for £6 (with free postage), and containing just the four symphonies that set me on fire, and omitting the three symphonies that put me to sleep. Looks like this pack was made for me. So I thought it was worth a shot at this price, and put the order in. However, reviews of these Jansons/Oslo recordings are hard to come by (tho' the few I've found are positive).

Anyone know these? Am I heading for delight, or disappointment?

Link to the bargain purchase here:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Sibelius-Symphonies-Nos/dp/B002IR3PRS/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=music&qid=1284146834&sr=1-1

I have that 2-for.

Neither disappointment nor delight.  Some parts good, some parts merely okay.  If the price was higher, you might have regretted the purchase; as it is,  your quest for the perfect Sibelius will continue.

[Benji]

Does anyone have the set of symphonies recorded with the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra? It was re-released on a buget label but is now infuriatingly expensive and EMI don't seem to want to re-issue it themselves (in competition with the above set, reissued a zillion times already).

If so, i'd be super grateful for a copy of the discs. I'd gladly pay materials and shipping costs and I promise i'm not the copyright police. 

[jlaurson]

some reasonable prices are being asked for the set at these places:

amazon.co.uk (link)

amazon.de (link)

[Benji]

some reasonable prices are being asked for the set at these places:

amazon.co.uk (link)

amazon.de (link)

Yeah I saw those but oh man your definition of reasonable must be different than mine! I'm still sore from forking out £30 for the Blomstedt 1st and 7th disc...which then came out as a ultra-bargain box set a few months later. 

[Sergeant Rock]

Does anyone have the set of symphonies recorded with the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra? It was re-released on a buget label but is now infuriatingly expensive and EMI don't seem to want to re-issue it themselves (in competition with the above set, reissued a zillion times already).

If so, i'd be super grateful for a copy of the discs. I'd gladly pay materials and shipping costs and I promise i'm not the copyright police. 

I have it on LPs. Love it; my favorite cycle actually, and I too want the CDs. Since you seem to be passing it up, I just might hit the buy button on that offer from Amazon DE. Just don't tell Mrs. Rock  (Thanks for the links, Jens.)

Sarge

[Elgarian]

Jansons gets a big, lush sound from his orchestra, but he tends toward extremes of tempo and what to me are ill-considered rubato and dynamic accents that are just too interventionist and make the music sound more like disjointed patchwork than organic growth, a sequence of romantic gestures rather than a unified whole built of related cells.

It arrived this morning and I listened to the first symphony. I wouldn't have been able to articulate my response as finely as you did here, Dave, but I think yours is a very telling description of it. It really does come over as a series of orchestral cameos, of flourishes that are attractive enough in themselves but don't seem quite to stick together somehow.

So I think kishnevi was right:

Neither disappointment nor delight.  Some parts good, some parts merely okay.

My quest for the ultimate Sibelian experiece will indeed continue.

[Sergeant Rock]

My quest for the ultimate Sibelian experiece will indeed continue.

Considering the cycles you own (or have discarded), you already have a very broad range of styles and interpretations (from Sakari to Barbirolli). I'm really at a loss as what to suggest next. In the symphonies that don't put you to sleep, I've found recordings that satisfy me completely (or nearly so):

1 - Maazel/Vienna
2 - Szell/Concertgebouw or Bernstein/Vienna (interpretive extremes)
3 - Ashkenazy/Philharmonia
5 - Rattle or Berglund/Bournemouth

Of course that won't help you. You'd get a different list from everyone.

About the Sixth: have you heard Davis/Boston? He's so fast I guarantee you won't have time to nod off 

Sarge

[Benji]

About the Sixth: have you heard Davis/Boston? He's so fast I guarantee you won't have time to nod off 

Sarge

Oh how I despise that performance...

[Scarpia]

Oh how I despise that performance...

I'm with you.

[Elgarian]

Considering the cycles you own (or have discarded), you already have a very broad range of styles and interpretations (from Sakari to Barbirolli). I'm really at a loss as what to suggest next. In the symphonies that don't put you to sleep, I've found recordings that satisfy me completely (or nearly so):

1 - Maazel/Vienna
2 - Szell/Concertgebouw or Bernstein/Vienna (interpretive extremes)
3 - Ashkenazy/Philharmonia
5 - Rattle or Berglund/Bournemouth

Of course that won't help you. You'd get a different list from everyone.

I may be beyond help, Sarge. I'm chasing two impossible  memories:

(1) The first time I heard a recording of Sibelius 1 at the age of about 16 (I don't know who the conductor was, and didn't know it mattered), there was something about the transition from the clarinet solo to the entry of the strings that blew my head off. I want that again, however unrealistic the desire may be.
(2) Shortly afterwards I bought a mono LP of Beecham conducting it - on Philips I think - and I played the grooves flat on that. Loved it. Today, I'd find the sound quality an obstacle.

As a result, some weird imperfectly remembered synthesised version - a sort of composite of those two -  has acquired mythic status for me over the decades, and even though it doesn't exist, yet still it's the carrot that still pulls the donkey onwards.

So you see, I think there is no destination; just a road to be travelled hopefully.

About the Sixth: have you heard Davis/Boston? He's so fast I guarantee you won't have time to nod off

No, I've given up on 4, 6 and 7. I've tried them so many times over the years, really really wanting to get into them; but they leave me feeling bad-tempered and dissatisfied. I just can't hear any proper tunes. And what I want from Sibelius, what I most value him for, is a musical metaphor for clear distant skies, blue ice, wind-driven snow, shivering firs, and big, big typically Sibelian tunes.

[Sergeant Rock]

Oh how I despise that performance...

Funny how different we listeners are. I didn't get the Sixth at all until I heard that Davis recording. Suddenly, the entire work just snapped into focus. I love the way his speeds make the symphony feel Mozartean...and love the way the movements seem to end quite abrubtly, almost before they've begun...and always with a pleasant shock.

Sarge

[Scarpia]

I may be beyond help, Sarge. I'm chasing two impossible  memories:

(1) The first time I heard a recording of Sibelius 1 at the age of about 16 (I don't know who the conductor was, and didn't know it mattered), there was something about the transition from the clarinet solo to the entry of the strings that blew my head off. I want that again, however unrealistic the desire may be.
(2) Shortly afterwards I bought a mono LP of Beecham conducting it - on Philips I think - and I played the grooves flat on that. Loved it. Today, I'd find the sound quality an obstacle.

As a result, some weird imperfectly remembered synthesised version - a sort of composite of those two -  has acquired mythic status for me over the decades, and even though it doesn't exist, yet still it's the carrot that still pulls the donkey onwards.

Clearly you need to hire an orchestra and conduct your own recording.

[Scarpia]

Funny how different we listeners are. I didn't get the Sixth at all until I heard that Davis recording. Suddenly, the entire work just snapped into focus. I love the way his speeds make the symphony feel Mozartean...and love the way the movements seem to end quite abrubtly, almost before they've begun...and always with a pleasant shock.

And you love the way the brass section sounds like a high school band on a Monday morning at 8am?

[Elgarian]

Clearly you need to hire an orchestra and conduct your own recording.

Good idea. Could you be in charge of the emergency evacuation arrangements?

[karlhenning]

As a result, some weird imperfectly remembered synthesised version - a sort of composite of those two -  has acquired mythic status for me over the decades, and even though it doesn't exist, yet still it's the carrot that still pulls the donkey onwards.

The upside is: it's giving the donkey employment ; )

[Sergeant Rock]

And you love the way the brass section sounds like a high school band on a Monday morning at 8am?

I clearly have a higher opinion of the Boston Symphony than you do. The brass is at least the equal of a high school band at midday.

Sarge

[karlhenning]

I'm crying here.

[Scarpia]

I clearly have a higher opinion of the Boston Symphony than you do. The brass is at least the equal of a high school band at midday.

I have heard recordings where they play beautifully, but not in that one (which I've heard just recently).  It truly struck me as the worst brass playing I have ever heard on a classical music recording.

[Sergeant Rock]

I'm crying here.

As much as I hate to agree with our friend Scarpia here, I do find the Boston brass a little crude in a few spots of that Davis Sibelius cycle...although not in the Sixth. I'm sure it's the fault of the recording team though.

Sarge