The Snowshoed Sibelius

[Mirror Image]

No En Saga fans?!?!? Shame on all of you!

[Madiel]

I'm sorry, but our inboxes all don't immediately tremble the second you've written something...

This is one of the few works where I have more than one performance - I've got both Ashkenazy/Philharmonia and Vanska/Lahti So.

And it's also one of the even fewer times where I have a strong preference. I much prefer Ashkenazy. The piece feels more dynamic and also more structurally coherent. I feel I can follow where the piece is going much better.

[Karl Henning]

I'm sorry, but our inboxes all don't immediately tremble the second you've written something...

This is one of the few works where I have more than one performance - I've got both Ashkenazy/Philharmonia and Vanska/Lahti So.

And it's also one of the even fewer times where I have a strong preference. I much prefer Ashkenazy. The piece feels more dynamic and also more structurally coherent. I feel I can follow where the piece is going much better.

Interesting!

[Mirror Image]

I'm sorry, but our inboxes all don't immediately tremble the second you've written something...

This is one of the few works where I have more than one performance - I've got both Ashkenazy/Philharmonia and Vanska/Lahti SO.

And it's also one of the even fewer times where I have a strong preference. I much prefer Ashkenazy. The piece feels more dynamic and also more structurally coherent. I feel I can follow where the piece is going much better.

I feel the exact opposite as I don't think Ashkenazy brings much to the table interpretatively. Every detail and nuance is handled to perfection under Vanska. Also, I prefer BIS's state-of-the-art sound to Decca's (not that theirs is anything to scoff at).

[Brahmsian]

+1

I love Hahn's performance!

+2  Really love this performance as well. 

[Jaakko Keskinen]

My opinion of En Saga is probably the same Verdi said about Tristan: "I stand in awe and terror before it." The original version probably terrifies me even more. It is fitting that Sibelius said that in no other work of his had he so throughly revealed himself.

[Sergeant Rock]

En Saga, Op. 9 Any favorite performances?

Timings of the En Saga versions I own, favorites in bold (those three have a notable bass drum presence):

Stein/Suisse Romande  16:15
Maazel/Pittsburgh             17:06
Schmidt/RPO                17:51
Vänskä/Lahti                18:03
Karajan/Berlin Phil           18:15
Szell/Cleveland                18:35
Davis/LSO                       18:48
Berglund/Bournemouth     18:54
Ashkenazy/Philharmonia   19:27
Franck/Swedish RSO        19:46
Sanderling/Berlin SO        19:54               
Furtwängler/Berlin Phil      20:29

[Sergeant Rock]

This is one of the few works where I have more than one performance - I've got both Ashkenazy/Philharmonia and Vanska/Lahti...I much prefer Ashkenazy.

I feel the exact opposite as I don't think Ashkenazy brings much to the table interpretatively.

For some reason, Ashkenazy gave the bass drummer the day off. The climactic moments have literally no punch.

Sarge

[Mirror Image]

+2  Really love this performance as well. 

Ray! You're back! Good to see you again!

[North Star]

Surusoitto (Funeral Music) for organ op. 111b (1931)

Surusoitto for organ op. 111b (1931) was written for the funeral of Sibelius's dear friend and fellow artist from the Symposium years, Akseli Gallen-Kallela. It was to be Sibelius's last instrumental work. Since Sibelius only had only a couple of days to write the music, he was on the verge of canceling the commission. However, as the invitation cards had already been printed, he agreed to keep his promise. This was fortunate, since today it seems that we possess just this one piece which gives us a a clue as to what the musical expression of the eighth symphony might have been like.

Surusoitto (Funeral Music) is a captivating and exciting work, like something that has come directly from a lunar landscape. It is unlike anything else that Sibelius ever wrote. Unprepared, unresolved dissonances, strange chord combinations, open fifths and overlapping fourths paint an ascetic and pitiless inner landscape. The effect is slightly alleviated by a melody with a sparse accompaniment; this is introduced before the repeat of the opening section, and before the concluding chords, whose structure is based on fourths. It seems that Sibelius could, after all, renew himself and find an expressive mode that today seems more modern than ever.

Aino Sibelius told Joonas Kokkonen after he asked about the origins of the work, that it and the Eight Symphony might have something to do with each other

(from Sibelius.fi)

https://www.youtube.com/v/yKF5kGj04m0

[Que]

Any favorite performances? I think Vanska/Lahti SO is the best one I've heard, although I've heard plenty of good performances of it, but Vanska gets top markings here.

In comparison to you guys I do not nearly qualify as a Sibelian. Still, En Saga has been a favorite for quite a while.

I do think Vänska's reading is pretty impressive, but this trumps it IMO:

[asin]B00004T00Y[/asin]

I bought on recommendation by Dancing Divertimentian, I believe...

Q

[Karl Henning]

Nice to have you visit, Que 

[Mirror Image]

Nice to have you visit, Que 

Yeah, it's kind of strange to see Que on the Sibelius thread.

[Dancing Divertimentian]

I bought on recommendation by Dancing Divertimentian, I believe...

I remember discussing other Ondine recordings with you in the past Que but I actually haven't heard this one.

The fact you rate it so highly though definitely has me wanting to check it out!

[Que]

I remember discussing other Ondine recordings with you in the past Que but I actually haven't heard this one.

Then I neglected  to mention someone else,  but I forgot who!

Anyway, no matter,  the Franck is really nice.

Q

[North Star]

Surusoitto (Funeral Music) for organ op. 111b (1931)

So, how many Sibelians here have heard this work before? I myself came across it only yesterday. What do you think of it?

[Mirror Image]

Then I neglected  to mention someone else,  but I forgot who!

Anyway, no matter,  the Franck is really nice.

Q

Sarge perhaps?

[Karl Henning]

So, how many Sibelians here have heard this work before? I myself came across it only yesterday. What do you think of it?

Never!  Not sure I even knew of it before.  Does this Op.111b designation indicate a variant scoring?

[Sergeant Rock]

Sarge perhaps?

Could be me. Franck's En Saga has long been one of my favorite versions (and the coupled Lemminkäinen still is the desert island choice). Where this En Saga lets me down slightly is the bass drum. Compared to my three favorites, it's recessed and mushy (like distant thunder...which, come to think of it, might be appropriate). It's a minor quibble though; it's still much better than most of the competition.

Sarge

[Jaakko Keskinen]

So, how many Sibelians here have heard this work before? I myself came across it only yesterday. What do you think of it?

I have certainly come across it before, considering it was one of the last/the very last new composition he ever finished. And it's not half bad.