BaL 18.05.19 - Sibelius: Lemminkäinen Suite, Op.22

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

09.30
Building a Library: Andrew Mellor compares recordings of Sibelius’s Lemminkäinen Suite.
Named after the mythical hero of the Finnish epic poem The Kalevala, Sibelius’s Lemminkäinen Suite features colourful and evocative orchestral writing and conjures up a range of moods from thrilling and heroic to atmospheric and mysterious. First performed in the 1890s, two of its numbers, The Swan of Tuonela and Lemminkäinen’s Return, were among the works with which Sibelius made his international breakthrough at the beginning of the 20th century but, stung by criticism after its premiere, Sibelius’s definitive four movement suite wasn’t published until 1954.


Available versions:-

London Symphony Orchestra, Sir Colin Davis
Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra, Mikko Franck
Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Sir Alexander Gibson
Scottish National Orchestra, Sir Alexander Gibson
Göteborgs Symfoniker, Neeme Järvi
Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra, Paavo Järvi
Danish State Radio Symphony Orchestra, Thomas Jensen
Helsinki Radio Symphony Orchestra, Okko Kamu
Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra, Hannu Lintu (SACD)
BBC Symphony Orchestra, Sakari Oramo
Los Angeles Philharmonic, Esa-Pekka Salonen
Iceland Symphony Orchestra, Petri Sakari
Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra, Leif Segerstam
Moscow Philharmonic Orchestra, Vassily Sinaisky
L’Orchestre de la Suisse Romande, Horst Stein
Lahti Symphony Orchestra, Osmo Vänskä (SACD)

[mikealdren]

Not many to compare and neither of Saraste's recordings available?

[verismissimo]

It's only The Swan of Tuonela that I'm relatively familiar with.

Look forward to listening more thoroughly to the whole suite this week - LA Phil/Salonen and Lahti SO/Vanska.

[LMcD]

Sorry to see that Gibson/SNO on Chandos is apparently no longer available - I've always rated Sir Alexander's Sibelius recordings very highly.

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

Sorry to see that Gibson/SNO on Chandos is apparently no longer available - I've always rated Sir Alexander's Sibelius recordings very highly.

But it is! I thought I'd typed it in. Apparently not.

[LeMartinPecheur]

Not such a huge field as usual so I wonder if they'll deign to mention outstanding stand-alone versions of the Swan or the Journey Home. I fell in love with the former very early in my journey into classical music, partly no doubt because it was the coupling for Barbirolli's Symph 2 bought in the great days of WH Smith record sales with mono deletions going for pennies.

For a complete version I bought the Kamu on LP when it came out and have since added the Sakari on CD. plus 6 other miscellaneous Swans including Ormandy on HMV 78, and for the Journey Home the 1937 Beecham and the Halle/ Barbirolli. No extra versions of the other two though, unsurprisingly no doubt...

...and did manage to read the complete Kalevala recently to try to work out what it's all about...

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

Now this should be a good BaL with "just" 16 recordings to choose from, Mellor should have plenty of time to prepare and discuss in detail. That is, of course, unless ...

I have only the (very good) Iceland/Sakari NAXOS disc, so would be interested in adding to that.

[Pulcinella]

Helsinki/Kamu on a rather odd (French?) 2CD DG set, listened to last night, and LSO/Davis here.
Certainly more familiar with The Swan than the other three movements here too.

[cloughie]

Really love this suite, as much if not more, than the symphonies - first heard this in the old Ace of Clubs Jensen recording, now have in the big Decca Mono box and the Decca Sibelius collection. Kamu was one I really liked and he interesting placed the Swan third in sequence which is now my preferred listening order. It will be interesting to hear if there is comment on this. The Beecham Lem's Return is probably my favourite interpretation - the origin from 78s add that extra rawness which suits.

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

... the old Ace of Clubs Jensen recording, now have in the big Decca Mono box and the Decca Sibelius collection.

Oh, yes! I have that, too My first recording was the EMI LP conducted by Ormandy back in the late '70s/early '80s, which had a really good review (Gramophone/Penguins) but which made me think that if this was a really good performance, then it wasn't a really good work.

The Beecham Lem's Return is probably my favourite interpretation - the origin from 78s add that extra rawness which suits.

- it was that recording that started my re-appraisal of the Suite about 15 years after Ormandy had made me neglect it. Those Beecham Mono Sibelius recordings (that fantastic Fourth Symphony) show the conductor at his considerable best.

[pastoralguy]

Sorry to see that Gibson/SNO on Chandos is apparently no longer available - I've always rated Sir Alexander's Sibelius recordings very highly.

And rightly so, LMcD.

Gibson was a real advocate for the great Fin's music durian his long tenure with the SNO. The Orchestra's timbre was well suited to this music since there's no real need for 'full fat' sound.

Even now, when the RSNO play Sibelius, one can still hear the Gibson influence.

[gradus]

It's Beecham for me, still sounds extraordinary.

[Pulcinella]

Really love this suite, as much if not more, than the symphonies - first heard this in the old Ace of Clubs Jensen recording, now have in the big Decca Mono box and the Decca Sibelius collection. Kamu was one I really liked and he interesting[ly] placed the Swan third in sequence which is now my preferred listening order. It will be interesting to hear if there is comment on this. The Beecham Lem's Return is probably my favourite interpretation - the origin from 78s add that extra rawness which suits.

Oh no: not another Mahler 6-type dilemma.
:eek:

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

Oh no: not another Mahler 6-type dilemma.
:eek:

Not really. If the composer had had his way, we'd still only have two movements in total.

[jayne lee wilson]

Well, that's a great BaL choice (at last!) and the current doyen of Gramophone writers on all things Scandi, to do it....
Perhaps they really do read what we say here after all...

I do love this work.
I thought so highly of the Stereo Ormandy that I bought the EMI-Toshiba after the original EMI CD release. Truly wonderful reading in fine sound, alive to both melodic and rhythmical aspects of the work....the mono one (from Pristine) is well-transferred as you'd expect, but though very interesting, I don't find it a match, let alone superior, to the stereo taping...(recorded across 1950-51, not initially planned as a complete set)...fascinated to see what Mellor has to say about them though.

A few years ago Ondine seemed to corner the market with marvellous recordings from Helsinki PO/Segerstam (1996) and Swedish RSO/Franck (2000)...both very distinctive, with the visionary side caught by Segerstam a little more, Franck emphasising warmer, lyrical qualities..... but very hard to choose between them.
The Swan is second with Franck, third with Segerstam.... which is very useful if you have both! You decide....like Big Brother used to say...
(Well, you can hit track programming, but....)


Oddly enough, I found Vanska's second Lahti SO recording** one of the less successful of his excellent Sibelius series - for me it lacked some inspiration...a bit of a puzzle there, even with hi-res to help out...the c/w Wood-Nymph and En Saga were probably the best things about that album....but I shall try to revisit.

** the 1999 release included original versions & appendices, but was beset by technical problems with the sound, as BIS themselves had to admit...
Interesting though.