Sibelius, Jean (1865-1957)

[LMcD]

On Wednesday my trawl through charity shops in our county town produced, among other things, a CD of Sibelius's 3rd and 6th symphonies recorded by the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra under Paavo Berglund - part of a cycle of which I was previously unaware. I've already played the 3rd, and very fine it is too! The disc appears to have been distributed by Disky Communications, but I'm not sure whether that's under licence from another label. The performances were recorded in the Southampton Guildhall, where I used to attend BSO concerts when at university. If memory serves, the hall was never that full, especially on the night when the programme included Penderecki's 'Hiroshima Threnody'!

[Barbirollians]

Our late forumite Hornspieler would have been shocked that you did not know of the legendary Bournemouth SO/Berglund cycle - it was available very cheaply on Warner recently. It includes still much my favourite Kullervo.

[cloughie]

On Wednesday my trawl through charity shops in our county town produced, among other things, a CD of Sibelius's 3rd and 6th symphonies recorded by the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra under Paavo Berglund - part of a cycle of which I was previously unaware. I've already played the 3rd, and very fine it is too! The disc appears to have been distributed by Disky Communications, but I'm not sure whether that's under licence from another label. The performances were recorded in the Southampton Guildhall, where I used to attend BSO concerts when at university. If memory serves, the hall was never that full, especially on the night when the programme included Penderecki's 'Hiroshima Threnody'!

Originally EMI, the BoSO recordings were issued on the Disky set several years ago - I have many Disky discs - produced and distributed in Holland - the Cluytens Beethoven Sym cycle was another set which was reincarnated there.

[Pulcinella]

Originally EMI, the BoSO recordings were issued on the Disky set several years ago - I have many Disky discs - produced and distributed in Holland - the Cluytens Beethoven Sym cycle was another set which was reincarnated there.

This (Sibelius) set, now on Warner?

https://www.prestomusic.com/classical/products/8021239--sibelius-symphonies-nos-1-7

[Bryn]

This (Sibelius) set, now on Warner?
https://www.prestomusic.com/classica...honies-nos-1-7

Or for £10.99 (including p&p) from Music Magpie via amazon.co.uk.

[Pulcinella]

Or for £10.99 (including p&p) from Music Magpie via amazon.co.uk.

That's almost charity shop bargain price!
LMcD should snap one up and recycle the single CD!

[LMcD]

That's almost charity shop bargain price!
LMcD should snap one up and recycle the single CD!

...... desperately trying to convince myself that I don't need EVEN MORE CDs of Sibelius symphonies - I shall probably end up cheerfully yielding to temptation.
Thank you (I think ) for the links!

[jayne lee wilson]

That Bournemouth SO/Berglund cycle has been around the reissue block a few times - that Warners Remaster boxset improved on the Royal Classics White Horse to some extent (I'd hoped for greater improvement though, and the 7th still sounded a little wispy...)...but the best by far are the Japanese separate issues with the LP cover art, Kullervo & 3-7 here -

https://www.hmv.co.jp/en/search/music/adv_1/category_1/genre_Classical_700/keyword_sibelius+berglund+bournemouth/target_CLASSIC/type_sr/

...Warners jp, previously.... fondly-recalled Toshiba-EMI of course....
They offer wonderfully present, very dynamic, large-scale realism of sound for this classic cycle...you might still track a few down on Amazon somewhere...

[Dave2002]

Or for £10.99 (including p&p) from Music Magpie via amazon.co.uk.

The Helsinki set is slightly cheaper from Dodax, also via Amazon. Is there a preference for one over the other? I had the Helsinki recordings which I really liked in their original EMI manifestion, but I think they have been lost due to unfortunate circumstances a while back. Life is too short to worry about those things though, but I have thought to replace them.

[jayne lee wilson]

The Helsinki set is slightly cheaper from Dodax, also via Amazon. Is there a preference for one over the other? I had the Helsinki recordings which I really liked in their original EMI manifestion, but I think they have been lost due to unfortunate circumstances a while back. Life is too short to worry about those things though, but I have thought to replace them.

Did you ever hear the COE/Berglund Finlandia cycle? Better sound than Helsinki (although the jp-issue Helsinki is OK, what I've got of it) and far more inner life musically... the (slightly) smaller so-agile and marvellously virtuoso ensemble (augmented for 2 and 5) is only ever a benefit.... 3 doesn't quite come off, 5 a bit of a stretto-blare, but it's a marvellous, endlessly fascinating set...and still hidden treasure to some extent...

For me the COE set is out on its own for sound and playing, but the BSO has that early spark of spontaneity, mutual excitement and discovery. Very atmospheric.
Helsinki.... some way behind those two. As if just too studiedly neutral in the Berglund manner. I rarely feel drawn to it now.

[Dave2002]

Did you ever hear the COE/Berglund Finlandia cycle? Better sound than Helsinki (although the jp-issue Helsinki is OK, what I've got of it) and far more inner life musically... the (slightly) smaller so-agile and marvellously virtuoso ensemble (augmented for 2 and 5) is only ever a benefit.... 3 doesn't quite come off, but it's a marvellous, endlessly fascinating set...and still hidden treasure to some extent...

For me the COE set is out on its own for sound and playing, but the BSO has that early spark of spontaneity, mutual excitement and discovery. Very atmospheric.
Helsinki.... some way behind those two. As if just too studiedly neutral in the Berglund manner. I rarely feel drawn to it now.

Interesting - I'll look out for the COE set. Just noticed that the BSO set is available to stream for am Prime members, though the SQ is unlikely to thrill.

Noted that the COE version is available as MP3 (not so great) or streaming, and otherwise seems difficult to obtain. Perhaps ebay is the way to go for that. Thought I'd have a quick look at Qobuz before cancelling my subscription - as mentioned elsewhere - but doesn't seem to be there either.

[LMcD]

I recently acquired, for a trifling sum, a CD which includes Leonard Bernstein's 1987 live recording of the 7th symphony with the Vienna Philharmonic, a recording which I don't recall having heard before. I have to say I was most impressed by this truly magisterial account which, while spacious and longer than many others, seemed to me to be perfectly paced from start to finish. I know that Bernstein was sometimes accused of self-indulgence that led to excessively slow, laboured readings ('Enigma Variations' ?), but I don't think that applies in this case. I understand that this disc was part of a proposed cycle that was not completed owing to Bernstein's death in 1990.

[bluestateprommer]

If anyone wants to hear the recent Minnesota Orchestra / Elina Vahala performance of the 1904 version of Sibelius' Violin Concerto, it's available, for the moment, at this page, below the "Jan. 7 concert" sub-header:

https://www.yourclassical.org/story/2021/09/24/minnesota-orchestra-2021-22-season

Any chance to hear the 1904 version is exceptionally rare (almost on the order of Havergal Brian 1), to state the obvious. EV's performance of the final version, in a concert with Sibelius 4 and 3, is also available for listening as well.

[Barbirollians]

If anyone wants to hear the recent Minnesota Orchestra / Elina Vahala performance of the 1904 version of Sibelius' Violin Concerto, it's available, for the moment, at this page, below the "Jan. 7 concert" sub-header:

https://www.yourclassical.org/story/2021/09/24/minnesota-orchestra-2021-22-season

Any chance to hear the 1904 version is exceptionally rare (almost on the order of Havergal Brian 1), to state the obvious. EV's performance of the final version, in a concert with Sibelius 4 and 3, is also available for listening as well.

Is that the same as on Leonidas Kavakos’s recording ?

[bluestateprommer]

Is that the same as on Leonidas Kavakos’s recording ?

AFAICT, yes. Must confess that I don't have the mental bandwidth to listen very closely to both the Kavakos recording & EV's radio performance to do a phrase-by-phrase comparison. But at a high level, from a recent sonic visit to the Kavakos recording and working from memories of my visit to MN and hearing EV's radio relay, it does sound pretty much the same score. The Kavakos recording was from 1991, and at the end of 2020, the score of the original version was published for the first time:

https://internationalmusician.org/sibelius-violin-concerto-in-d-minor-early-version-op-47-1904/

I've no idea if any further editorial changes would have occurred since the Kavakos recording leading up to the 2020 publication. Anyway, it'll be interesting to hear other opinions on EV's performance of the original, and also of the final version. EV is featured with MPR presenter Melissa Owsley in both weekends, and EV is a very charming and thoughtful speaker on both versions, besides the sheer challenge of playing both concertos from memory on successive weeks.