The Snowshoed Sibelius

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

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jlaurson

#800

The new erato

The Segerstam/Ondine set is available at 18 Euros on amazon.de.

Just ordered one. :D

Sadko

Quote from: jlaurson on February 27, 2011, 03:19:59 AM
Ashkenazy Sibelius cycle on Exton is finnish(ed), too! But the discs can be difficult to to get outside Japan.
Rozhdestvensky seems now (spottily) available in the West on Melodiya. (Thanks, Elgarian)

...


Thank you very much for this market survey :)


Szykneij

I have tickets to see Thomas Adès conduct the Boston Symphony in a few weeks and Sibelius' "The Tempest" (Suite No. 1) is on the program. I picked up a copy of the EMI Beecham/Royal Philharmonic CD to familiarize myself with the work and I'm enjoying it thoroughly. Any recommendations for other recordings? I understand the order of these short pieces varies from recording to recording. This one seems to have movements from Suite 1 and Suite 2 interspersed somewhat randomly.
Men profess to be lovers of music, but for the most part they give no evidence in their opinions and lives that they have heard it.  ~ Henry David Thoreau

Don't pray when it rains if you don't pray when the sun shines. ~ Satchel Paige

DavidRoss

Quote from: Szykneij on March 01, 2011, 02:29:11 PM
I have tickets to see Thomas Adès conduct the Boston Symphony in a few weeks and Sibelius' "The Tempest" (Suite No. 1) is on the program. I picked up a copy of the EMI Beecham/Royal Philharmonic CD to familiarize myself with the work and I'm enjoying it thoroughly. Any recommendations for other recordings? I understand the order of these short pieces varies from recording to recording. This one seems to have movements from Suite 1 and Suite 2 interspersed somewhat randomly.
For the suites, Segerstam/HPO, for the complete incidental music, Saraste/FRSO.
"Maybe the problem most of you have ... is that you're not listening to Barbirolli." ~Sarge

"The problem with socialism is that sooner or later you run out of other people's money." ~Margaret Thatcher

Brian

I'm undergoing a severe Sibelius drought so far this year. The last period of explosive activity in this thread, back when Elgarian and I conquered our fears of the Seventh and Fourth, respectively, was my last Sibelius "kick." I listened to the Fourth a couple times for the listening club, and saw the Fifth live yesterday - Philharmonia & Susanna Malkki - a wonderful experience! - but Nos 4 and 5 are the only Sibelius works I've heard at all in 2011. Averaging one listen to his music per week.

It feels really bizarre to go through such pronounced phases with a composer. In about 6 weeks, if the trend holds true, I'll be listening to him obsessively again.

Mirror Image

#806
Quote from: Brian on March 07, 2011, 03:07:26 AM
I'm undergoing a severe Sibelius drought so far this year. The last period of explosive activity in this thread, back when Elgarian and I conquered our fears of the Seventh and Fourth, respectively, was my last Sibelius "kick." I listened to the Fourth a couple times for the listening club, and saw the Fifth live yesterday - Philharmonia & Susanna Malkki - a wonderful experience! - but Nos 4 and 5 are the only Sibelius works I've heard at all in 2011. Averaging one listen to his music per week.

It feels really bizarre to go through such pronounced phases with a composer. In about 6 weeks, if the trend holds true, I'll be listening to him obsessively again.

My patterns aren't so erratic as yours, but I try to make time for the composers that I love at least every month. This month is Stravinsky, Bartok, and Villa-Lobos month for me so far. I think in April I'm going to try to catch up with some Sibelius, but I'm not going to listen to any of the symphonies, as much as I love them, but I have already explored them from top to bottom, inside and out. I'm going to focus my attention on the tone poems, choral works, and the incidental music he composed.

Jaakko Keskinen

Quote from: Mirror Image on March 09, 2011, 03:18:22 PM
My patterns aren't so erratic as yours, but I try to make time for the composers that I love at least every month. This month is Stravinsky, Bartok, and Villa-Lobos month for me so far. I think in April I'm going to try to catch up with some Sibelius, but I'm not going to listen to any of the symphonies, as much as I love them, but I have already explored them from top to bottom, inside and out. I'm going to focus my attention on the tone poems, choral works, and the incidental music he composed.

Don't forget Voces intimae! And much of his less known chamber music for larger ensembles or violin/piano is really worth of listening and most of them are totally underrated.

Sorry, when it's about Sibelius's more less known compositions I can rarely keep my trap shut.  ::)
"Javert, though frightful, had nothing ignoble about him. Probity, sincerity, candor, conviction, the sense of duty, are things which may become hideous when wrongly directed; but which, even when hideous, remain grand."

- Victor Hugo

TheGSMoeller


North Star

Quote from: Mirror Image on March 09, 2011, 03:18:22 PM
My patterns aren't so erratic as yours, but I try to make time for the composers that I love at least every month. This month is Stravinsky, Bartok, and Villa-Lobos month for me so far. I think in April I'm going to try to catch up with some Sibelius, but I'm not going to listen to any of the symphonies, as much as I love them, but I have already explored them from top to bottom, inside and out. I'm going to focus my attention on the tone poems, choral works, and the incidental music he composed.

For the male choir pieces, I recommend this excellent album
[asin]B001AE3F48[/asin]

The pronunciation is going to be atrocious if you get the works performed by non-Finnish choirs, I guarantee that. Then again, you might not notice it.
"Everything has beauty, but not everyone sees it." - Confucius

My photographs on Flickr

Mirror Image

Quote from: North Star on August 01, 2011, 04:30:18 AM
For the male choir pieces, I recommend this excellent album
[asin]B001AE3F48[/asin]

The pronunciation is going to be atrocious if you get the works performed by non-Finnish choirs, I guarantee that. Then again, you might not notice it.

I'll have to check but if I'm not mistaken I already have this recording which is included in the Essential Sibelius 15-CD BIS set I bought a year or so ago. I think it's out-of-print now.

North Star

Quote from: Mirror Image on August 01, 2011, 03:59:13 PM
I'll have to check but if I'm not mistaken I already have this recording which is included in the Essential Sibelius 15-CD BIS set I bought a year or so ago. I think it's out-of-print now.
Yes, it very probably is, perhaps there are even two (not too well filled ones, though) CD's.
"Everything has beauty, but not everyone sees it." - Confucius

My photographs on Flickr

Mirror Image

Quote from: North Star on August 02, 2011, 08:59:34 PM
Yes, it very probably is, perhaps there are even two (not too well filled ones, though) CD's.

Well choral work has never been that big of interest me when discussing Sibelius. His best work, in my opinion, are the symphonies and tone poems, though he has written some lovely pieces for violin/orchestra as well as some incidental music, but this is fairly minor Sibelius.


kishnevi

Quote from: North Star on August 01, 2011, 04:30:18 AM
For the male choir pieces, I recommend this excellent album
[asin]B001AE3F48[/asin]

The pronunciation is going to be atrocious if you get the works performed by non-Finnish choirs, I guarantee that. Then again, you might not notice it.

Nota bene:  this group is the chorus on the Segerstam/Helsinki Philharmonic performance of Kullervo issued by Ondine.

North Star

Yes, YL (Ylioppilaskunnan Laulajat; Singers of the Students' Union) is the finest male choir in Finland, and is probably on every recording of Sibelius with a Finnish orchestra.
"Everything has beauty, but not everyone sees it." - Confucius

My photographs on Flickr

Amfortas

Quote from: Sergeant Rock on May 04, 2008, 06:29:35 AM
Here are a few examples. I hope others will "chime" in with other performances:


Glockenspiel

Maazel/Vienna
Ashkenazy/Philharmonia
Berglund/COE
Vänskä/Lahti SO
Karajan/Berlin Phil (DG)
Karajan/Berlin Phil (EMI)
Segerstam/Helsinki
Beecham/RPO
Barbirolli/Hallé
Sakari/Iceland
Kegel/Dresden

Tubular Bells

Bernstein/NY Phil
Ormandy/Philadelphia
Blomstedt/San Francisco
Stokowski

Glockenspiel and Tubular Bells

Maazel/Pittsburgh
Davis/LSO (RCA)
Davis/Boston
Järvi/Gothenburg

Szell and Reiner began with the glockenspiel, then added tubular bells, and ended with just bells.

I think the combination of instruments is the most effective. Davis, for example, begins with glockenspiel, uses bells only in the central climax, and has both appear near the symphony's end, which make those bars sound even more chaotic and disturbing than usual.

Sarge

Chiming in that Ernest Ansermet is 'totally tubular' (as the California surfers used to say) in his version with L'Orchestre de la Suisse Romande. And it creates a strange and beautiful effect, in my opinion.
''Better pass boldly into that other world, in the full glory of some passion, than fade and wither dismally with age.'' - James Joyce (The Dead)

John Copeland

Quote from: Mirror Image on August 02, 2011, 09:09:59 PM
Well choral work has never been that big of interest me when discussing Sibelius. His best work, in my opinion, are the symphonies and tone poems, though he has written some lovely pieces for violin/orchestra as well as some incidental music, but this is fairly minor Sibelius.

Have you hear his Snofrid?  It is in my top 5 favourite Sibelius works.

MishaK

#817
If one were toying with the idea of getting either the Blomstedt or the Maazel/Pitts cycle, what are the considerations that should push one in either direction?

Sergeant Rock

#818
Quote from: Amfortas on August 08, 2011, 10:26:42 AM
Chiming in that Ernest Ansermet is 'totally tubular' (as the California surfers used to say) in his version with L'Orchestre de la Suisse Romande. And it creates a strange and beautiful effect, in my opinion.

Cool. I haven't heard Ansermet. I'll add it to the list.

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"

Renfield

#819
Quote from: Amfortas on August 08, 2011, 10:26:42 AM
Chiming in that Ernest Ansermet is 'totally tubular' (as the California surfers used to say) in his version with L'Orchestre de la Suisse Romande. And it creates a strange and beautiful effect, in my opinion.

Ansermet's 4th (if that's indeed the one you're discussing) is pretty great, indeed.

'Strange and beautiful' might well apply for the whole performance.


Also, cross-posting from the Melodiya thread, regarding something I picked up this year:

Quote from: Renfield on August 10, 2011, 04:16:15 PM
Speaking of which, should you find the Rozhdestvensky Sibelius cycle of offer, or even at a reasonable price, and you like Sibelius at all, it's one of those unexpected 24-carat diamonds of the Melodiya catalogue; or even the Sibelius catalogue.

Short of Vänskä's uber-'authentic' cycle, I can't think of any (complete) cycle I would have before Rozhdestvensky's, much to my surprise when I acquired it. No allowances for being 'Russian-style': it's just great Sibelius, including the best 3rd I know!

I can't remember the last time I was so floored over an entire cycle of someone's symphonies. The 1st is good, but not mind-blowing; and then you get to the second... And then that third. :o And then... Even the 6th!

It's as awe-inspiring as Svetlanov's Mahler, only more normal.