Sibelius Sixth

[Beef Oven!]

That's gone up a quid since a load of us downloaded it in 2012. Think it was Bryn that pointed it out.

[aka Calum Da Jazbo]

inflation innit [it takes some of us longer than others] and ta to Bryn and &c

[Beef Oven!]

inflation innit [it takes some of us longer than others] and ta to Bryn and &c

Capitalists are always banging on about inflation

[Nachtigall]

I find Sibelius 6 one of the most profound evocations of depression and emptiness out there…The end is heartbreaking.

Though I perhaps wouldn't put my response in quite such strong terms ("depression", "heartbreaking") I think kea is on to something here. In my youth it was always the Second which was the favourite Sibelius symphony; a little later it was the Fifth. For some years now it has definitely been the Sixth. There is something about that wispy, tentative, shivery conclusion of the last movement that leaves one with a profound and unnameable emotion. I have cycles by Colin Davis and Berglund and I have Karajan's Berlin and Sakari's Iceland recordings, but the performance which frequently affects me the most deeply is actually Ashkenazy's with the Philharmonia.

[visualnickmos]

.....but the performance which frequently affects me the most deeply is actually Ashkenazy's with the Philharmonia.

Quite.

[HighlandDougie]

the performance which frequently affects me the most deeply is actually Ashkenazy's with the Philharmonia.

Me too: it's the performance I keep going back to. He seems to capture what Nachtigall has so eloquently described better than anyone else (and better than himself in the later Exton release).

[Ferretfancy]

Quite.

Prompted by this discussion, I've just listened to Ashkenazy again after quite a while. I'd rather forgotten what a fine performance it is. My only slight quibble is that there are a few very quiet passages that are beautifully played, but tend to disappear unless you listen at very high level. All in all, Ashkenazy's set is a firm recommendation. I'm not sure about all the reissues, as I bought the symphonies one by one, the coupling of No. 4 with Luonnotar is very fine, and Elizabeth Soderstrom is superb.

[richardfinegold]

Prompted by this discussion, I've just listened to Ashkenazy again after quite a while. I'd rather forgotten what a fine performance it is. My only slight quibble is that there are a few very quiet passages that are beautifully played, but tend to disappear unless you listen at very high level. All in all, Ashkenazy's set is a firm recommendation. I'm not sure about all the reissues, as I bought the symphonies one by one, the coupling of No. 4 with Luonnotar is very fine, and Elizabeth Soderstrom is superb.

I had an Ashkenazy disc pairing 1 and 7 with the Philharmonia that I was quite impressed with. That led me to buy thier recording of 2, which was much less impressive, and I didn't seek out the rest of that cycle.

[Alison]

From listening to recordings The Philharmonia really was a first rate band in that early 80s period. A really distinguished set of principals, presumably assembled by R Muti.

[Bryn]

... I recently have become enamored with a DVD-A of an early 60s recording of the work (coupled with 5 & 7) by Maurice Abravanel and the Utah SO ...

A 3 CD box of these arrived today. No recording dates (just publication date of 1999) in the accompanying booklet or artwork but searching the Internet suggests they were recorded in 1977 (late analogue) rather than "early 60s". Opinion seems decidedly divided re. both the performances and recording quality. I have not yet had a chance to listen. Oh, the Ashkenazy set (mainly early digital recordings) also arrived, so lots of Sibelius to listen to.

[richardfinegold]

A 3 CD box of these arrived today. No recording dates (just publication date of 1999) in the accompanying booklet or artwork but searching the Internet suggests they were recorded in 1977 (late analogue) rather than "early 60s". Opinion seems decidedly divided re. both the performances and recording quality. I have not yet had a chance to listen. Oh, the Ashkenazy set (mainly early digital recordings) also arrived, so lots of Sibelius to listen to.

The dates of Abravanel discography are virtually impossible to get straight via the net. Some of the video content on the DVD-A suggested that these are 1960s recordings. I have many other Abravanel DVD-A and they all date from the mid or early 60s.