Sibelius, Symphony No.7 - 1st movement Blind sampling

[Guest]

Following on from johnb's Schubert thread, only with Sibelius.


Version A

Version B

Version C

Version D

[rubbernecker]

I must say I do find listening to these blind extracts most absorbing. It's what makes the Radio France Tribune programme so compulsive. Even with a work that you think you know really well like Sibelius 7, you appreciate new details: how crucial are the sustained woodwind phrases near the start, the intonation and ensemble.

The live performance in Version A is very fleet and beautifully recorded, I don't think it's one of the LSO live recordings with Davis or Berglund as they tend to take it slower. Could be a foreign orchestra.

Version B I'm pretty sure is Karajan, with the exquisite BPO woodwind. I must play this all the way through when I get home tonight!

Version C I'm also pretty sure is Colin Davis's Boston SO recording from the 70s which won BAL a few years ago and the version I know best. Now I'm struck by some sour clarinet playing!

Version D is again quite lissome but I haven't a clue who it is. Definitely not Beecham, recording too modern. I'm fairly certain it's not Berglund, Ashkenazy, Rattle or Maazel. Could be Barbirolli remastered?

If anyone would like to upload some more versions that would be great, I am a luddite when it comes to these things. Koussevitsky (mono) is another fave of mine.

[ostuni]

Thanks for posting these - I've just had great fun listening to them. There are far more expert Sibelians around than me, and this is a piece that I'm only just getting to know, so I await further details on the interpretations per se. But it's notable that the recording which has the slowest tempo until the acceleration shortly before the end (Version B) is then in a position to make the most exciting acceleration.

Version A is noisily live, and from the horn and (especially) trombone sound, must be Russian. Impassioned string playing, but some hideously out of tune woodwind in places. I hadn't heard Version B before, but after listening to all 4 of your extracts, I went over to Spotify to check whether the Lahti version was indeed the finest (which, to my ears it is), and then listened to another well known version in Spotify, only to find that it's your version B. I won't give the game away - but it's interesting that your version has a rather prominent edit at letter G (8.59), which isn't audible on Spotify - strange! Magnificent trombone sound, and wonderfully intense horns back at that big dissonance shortly after the opening.

Version C is a bit old fashioned in sound: very vibratoey flutes, woolly strings. All a bit well upholstered - I prefer B & D's leaner sounds. An occasionally vocal conductor? Version D is surprisingly fast. The brass are occasionally underpowered, but the overall orchestral sound is nice and lean & clean, which is what I like in Sibelius. But listening to Lahti/Vanska straight afterwards made the music sound much more intense (Vanska is the slowest of the lot at the beginning).

I was writing that while rubbernecker posted! Yes, he (she?!) has let the cat out of the bag re version B... And yes, C Davis is a singing conductor, so that sounds like a good answer for C.

[rubbernecker]

I was writing that while rubbernecker posted! Yes, he (she?!)... .

I suspect Mrs R could be in for a shock if I were your version B!

[Chris Newman]

I find that in excitement stakes A and D hit my G-spot. They are both very exciting and the conductors seem to know where they want to go. I have little idea who they are, though I rather liked the Russian trombone :) in A. Is A Mravrinsky, Svetlanov or Sanderling in a live recording? The trombone and the bronchitis suggest Russia.

B and C were really concentrating on beauty of sound and lost much of the spirit and drama in the process. C fancies himself as a singer so it could either be Colin Davis or John Barbirolli. B sounds so sumptuous it must be HvK.

[Basil]

As I was expecting A, B & C have been identified.

To confirm,
A is Evgeny Mravinsky and the Leningrad Philharmonic Orchestra.
B is H von Karajan and the BPO.
C is Colin Davis and the Boston Symphony.

I'll hold off on D, as no one has mentioned the conductor yet.

I've not had the Davis recording for long, but I've not noticed him singing along, so he doesn't seem to be in the same league as Glen Gould. A time index of where it's particularly noticeable would be nice :)

Thanks for the comments, I feel I've learned something today.

[Basil]

Anyone hazard a guess at D?

[PJPJ]

Lovely strings - is it the VPO? Too lean perhaps.

[PJPJ]

or the Gothenbergers, even..... I'd like to hear the rest of this performance! It's so different from Mravinsky, the first recording I ever heard, rather a long time ago.

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

Is there a newly discovered 2nd movement?

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

I too thought that C might be Barbirolli. He was a real beauty-of-sound man and liked to encourage lots of string and woodwind vibrato.

[Basil]

Is there a newly discovered 2nd movement?

What makes you think that?

[Mahlerei]

I'd say Version D is Ashkenazy (his Philharmonia cycle) or Vanska's for BIS.

[PJPJ]

Vanska's is a possibility I think - the flute doesn't sound like the Philharmonia's to me. What ever it is, it sounds very good.

[Basil]

Nobodies there yet, who can it be...

I think I've seen King Cristian from the original boards, post here. I'll hold off revealing the conductor of D until he spots this thread.