From: inr@eccles.caltech.edu (I. Neill Reid)
Newsgroups: rec.music.classical
Subject: re: Sibelius symphonies
Date: 12 Nov 1992 09:01 PST
Organization: California Institute of Technology
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>From: hbaldwin@mizar.usc.edu (Harry Baldwin)

>I concur that this recording is powerful.  I have never found the 1st to be 
>gloomy or chilly, rather an expression of deep and tragic yearning that may be 
>Tchaikovskian in degree and force, but with its own nordic sense of the tragic.
>Especially the haunting theme carried by the violins in the 1st movement that
>Sibelius uses so sparingly but which then underlies the rest of the symphony.
>I have just started collecting Sibelius' symphonies and this is the first that
>I felt I had to have.  This has probably been asked many times in the past, butI would like to hear some recommendations on the other six and Tapiola. I 
>have Yervi's version of the four legends but I heard Salinen conduct it last
>week with the LA Symphony and felt he built the structure more carefully and
>less precipitously, and for the first time made the last movement sound as if
>it belonged with the preceding three and wasn't a galloping, tacked-on 
>afterthought.

 There are many good performances of the Sibelius symphonies to choose
from. Colin Davis put together a fine set with the Boston Symphony;
Ashkenazi and the Philharmonia (I think) recorded a Russian interpretation -
the Tchaikovskian aspects of the 1st and 2nd come through strongly here
and the overall interpretations are warmer and broader;
Simon Rattle and CBSO also recorded a strong set, particularly the 3rd, 4th
and 5th; but Alexander Gibson and the SNO (Chandos Collect) remain my 
own favourites (their version of the Lemminkainen Legends is, I think, 
much better than the Salonen recording - tauter and rythmically more
exciting). The Gibson set is the most Nordic sounding that I've heard
- drier and colder, with neither the touches of Germanic romanticism in the 
Maazel cycle or Karajan's performances nor the Slavonic romanticism in 
Ashkenazi's work. I have only heard a couple of the symphonies as recorded
by Kajanus in the 30s (?), and that was on the radio some time ago, but
my memory says that Gibson gets a very similar atmosphere. Other
well-spoken of cycles are by Berglund (either with the Helsinki orchestra
or the Bournemouth Symphony) and Maazel's cycle with the Vienna
Phil. (BMG has been offering the latter set - some consider it the
finest set around, I find it too warm and reminiscent of Brahmsian
romanticism for my taste).

 As for individual performances, Karajan's recordings of the 4th 
from the late 60's is notable (again, obviously, from the German school);
Beecham's Sibelius recordings are outstanding - the 2nd from a live 
performance (with Dvorak's 8th - EMI), the 7th (with the Pelleas and Melisande
music and Tapiola - or is it En Saga (?) - EMI), and the violin concerto with
Heifetz as soloist (THE performance - I have an old copy on world records
but I saw it on cd somewhere recently); Koussevitsky, a very fine
Sibelian, recorded at least the 2nd and the 7th - the last only a few years 
after it was written; Bernstein's recording of the 5th symphony from the 
60s (? - NYPO version) is spectacularly over the top - I remember an 
Edinburgh Festival performance where we got an extra thump in the last set 
of chords as Bernstein crashed down onto the podium from a great height 
between chords. 

 Amongst new recordings, Herbert Blomstedt completed a fine Nielsen series,
which augurs well for his Sibelius (although I haven't heard any of the
recordings yet), and Mariss Jansons (Jansens?) has recorded an outstanding
performance of the 1st symphony. This last series (I think Jansons and
the Oslo Phil. (?) are planning on recording all of the symphonies) could 
shape up to be the best of the lot. 

   Neill Reid - inr@eccles.caltech.edu
Newsgroups: rec.music.classical