The Snowshoed Sibelius

[mahler10th]

Johnny, our Ray was having a bit of fun there!

Oh good, I thought Ray had lost his senses for a moment....alas, t'was I who lost his senses on seeing such words published..

[DavidW]

After that roller coaster ride of Vanska's 1st I can't wait to hear his Finlandia!!  Today for sure.

[Brahmsian]

Oh good, I thought Ray had lost his senses for a moment....alas, t'was I who lost his senses on seeing such words published..

I do lose my senses from time to time, John.  Including, yesterday.   

Karl was right though, I was just having some fun.  I'm actually a huge Colin Davis fan in general, and was making fun at everyone who likes to poo-poo Davis.

[Renfield]

OK. I always was a sucker for liquid nitrogen, so I've ordered a set of Maazel/WP. (The economics of buying the single CD of 1st/4th separately, compared to the whole set in a nice box didn't seem to make much sense.)

But look here - this is ABSOLUTELY the VERY LAST set of Sibelius symphonies I'm EVER going to buy! Right?

I hope you'll enjoy it. Certainly, the rest of the set is quite good too; but the 4th is the main event.

[Dancing Divertimentian]

Hmm...wow, Vänskä really hits home with me! My favorite Sibelius of all. What could possibly be "missing" from it I couldn't say.

Barbirolli is also wonderful, but of course nothing like Vänskä. It's more on the distended side, thicker, and warmer.

Also love Blomstedt and Ashkenazy.

Sergerstam's recent Helsinki 4th never got off the ground for me, and I gave it many attempts. I fount it too soft grained for my taste: smooth where it should have been chiseled. 

[Sergeant Rock]

But look here - this is ABSOLUTELY the VERY LAST set of Sibelius symphonies I'm EVER going to buy! Right?

Right 

I do think every Sibelian should have Maazel/WP in their collection. His interpretations are generally swift and objective, straight to the point. No romantic overindulgence. Gramophone says, "Maazel just realizes the score, gives you what Sibelius put down and puts it over to you with burning conviction. It is passionate, exciting, and the Vienna orchestra enters into the spirit..."  1, 4, 7 are critically acclaimed. The others are more controversial but I personally like them all (especially the Sixth, which many consider the weak link but I love the swift pace...not as fast as Davis/Boston but close). You've been grooving on Rozhdestvensky. Maazel's tempos are roughly similar so if you like that approach you should like Maazel, at least in that respect. Whether the important details--important to you--are there, well...that I can't know or promise. About the sound quality: vintage Decca analogue. What's not to like? 

Sarge

[DavidRoss]

I'm seeing much praise for Segerstam/Helsinki. Would someone care to give an overview of this set's virtues?

Generally lush and dramatic--but not overwrought--in very good sound and with the HP sounding world class--tight ensemble play with beautiful tone from the winds and full-bodied brass, far superior to the same orchestra many years before on Berglund's second cycle.

OK. I always was a sucker for liquid nitrogen, so I've ordered a set of Maazel/WP. (The economics of buying the single CD of 1st/4th separately, compared to the whole set in a nice box didn't seem to make much sense.)

But look here - this is ABSOLUTELY the VERY LAST set of Sibelius symphonies I'm EVER going to buy! Right?

Given your taste, I would expect you to like this set very much.  As for the very last set you'll ever buy, well, I told myself that about a dozen cycles ago!  FWIW, Maazel/WP was the first cycle I owned, previously having a smattering of symphony and tone poem recordings by Karajan and Ormandy and Davis.  I bought it in an effort to understand why a number of folks whose taste I respected praised Sibelius so highly. It worked.  By the third or fourth time through, everything started to snap into focus.  One symphony after another became my favorite.  And then--partly perhaps because I listened to them all in turn several times--I began to appreciate their cohesiveness as a complete body of work chronicling the artistic and spiritual growth of one of the most remarkable artists of his time, a phenomenal genius outside the mainstream with a singular voice that speaks to me, heart and soul, like no other.

I'm so glad that you (and others) are enjoying his music so much, Alan!  And I hope that the Maazel set unlocks more treasure chests for you to enjoy. 

[DavidRoss]

Johnny, our Ray was having a bit of fun there!

Just call him "Jimmie-Ray!"

[Elgarian]

Sergerstam's recent Helsinki 4th never got off the ground for me, and I gave it many attempts. I fount it too soft grained for my taste: smooth where it should have been chiseled.

Ooh, interesting. That was my impression too, though coming to the 4th after decades of a kind of turbulent indifference to it (I wonder what that means?), then having recently had it ice-picked into life by Rozhdestvensky, and then given my empassioned admiration of Segerstam's 1 and 3, I wondered what the heck was going on when Segerstam's 4th seemed vaguely unsatisfying. "Smooth where it should have been chiselled": that describes exactly what I thought I was hearing.

[Elgarian]

Given your taste, I would expect you to like this set very much.  As for the very last set you'll ever buy, well, I told myself that about a dozen cycles ago!  FWIW, Maazel/WP was the first cycle I owned, previously having a smattering of symphony and tone poem recordings by Karajan and Ormandy and Davis.  I bought it in an effort to understand why a number of folks whose taste I respected praised Sibelius so highly. It worked.  By the third or fourth time through, everything started to snap into focus.  One symphony after another became my favorite.  And then--partly perhaps because I listened to them all in turn several times--I began to appreciate their cohesiveness as a complete body of work chronicling the artistic and spiritual growth of one of the most remarkable artists of his time, a phenomenal genius outside the mainstream with a singular voice that speaks to me, heart and soul, like no other.

I'm so glad that you (and others) are enjoying his music so much, Alan!  And I hope that the Maazel set unlocks more treasure chests for you to enjoy. 

I listened to some samples of the Maazel before buying, Dave - stupidly short of course, but what I could sense even in those short bursts was what Sarge describes above as 'to-the-pointness'. Most particularly the bits of the 1st  and 4th that I heard promised the kind of crystalline iciness that I tend to like.

I didn't need any persuading about Sibelius in the first instance. I remember my earliest hearing of the first - in a school classroom, at lunchtime, in 1964. We'd set up a musical appreciation society (bursting at the seams with about 4 members) - we met at lunchtimes a couple of times a week, and worked our way steadily through the school's library of worn-out LPs; and one day from a clear, icy sky, came this clarinet solo, followed by strings, zithering down from snow-covered pines. That was Beecham, and he set the expectation for Sibelius from that point on, though I fancy my impression of it is so clouded by legend-built remembrance that it would disappoint me horribly if I heard it now.

But it's a remarkable thing that though I rapidly scooped up 2, 3 and 5 in rapid succession, 4, 6 and 7 have had to wait over 40 years for me to begin to tune in to them (and not at all for want of trying). Never say never, I guess. And here I am awaiting my personal delivery of Maazel's liquid nitrogen, having bought a box purely for the sake of the 4th! Who'd have thought it?

(I suppose the box arrives in a special insulated container?)

[karlhenning]

. . . And here I am awaiting my personal delivery of Maazel's liquid nitrogen. I suppose the box arrives in a special insulated container?

That's how it caught my eye at Borders, Alan, back when there was still a Borders . . . .

[Elgarian]

That's how it caught my eye at Borders, Alan, back when there was still a Borders . . . .

You caught me in mid-edit, Karl. I'll leave the two versions visible so as to create a sense of slight mystery.

[Brahmsian]

And here I am awaiting my personal delivery of Maazel's liquid nitrogen, having bought a box purely for the sake of the 4th! Who'd have thought it?

(I suppose the box arrives in a special insulated container?)

Allan, my set came in this container.  They sent me a special suit and gloves as well.   

[Elgarian]

Allan, my set came in this container.  They sent me a special suit and gloves as well.   

I honestly don't see how they could do all this at the price I paid, Ray.

[Brahmsian]

I honestly don't see how they could do all this at the price I paid, Ray.

'Tis true, Allan.  That Maazel/WP set is a mighty bargain.

[Brahmsian]

I honestly don't see how they could do all this at the price I paid, Ray.

Because it was made in China? 

[Elgarian]

It poses a heck of a storage problem though. I'm thinking maybe I'll discard the insulated container and keep the CDs in the freezer.

[Brahmsian]

It poses a heck of a storage problem though. I'm thinking maybe I'll discard the insulated container and keep the CDs in the freezer.

[Papy Oli]

If you ever see the Pavel Haas Quartet live, your heart will flutter... though it may not be the music. 

*....reminiscing....* 

[Papy Oli]

....and while I am here I might as well ask a serious question  0:)

As far as Sibelius is concerned, I only have the Kurt Sanderling boxset with the Berliner Sinfonie Orchester (Brilliant classics). Bar the second symphony, nothing else really clicked with me.

Which set would be at the polar opposite of this one for me to take a new approach of this composer please ?