Prom 43: Sibelius – Symphonies 5, 6 & 7 (17.08.15)

[Beef Oven!]

What was going on in the RAH last night?!!!

Just a concert of Sibelius music.

But these posts imply more sub plots than Peyton Place*!


*The TV series, I never read the book.

[Nick Armstrong]

Sorry, can't join in the banter.
I am out earning a crust.

May your cob be well-filled and the mayo not drip down your tie!

[teamsaint]

May your cob be well-filled and the mayo not drip down your tie!

Why ,thank you Cals.

I'll have mine with a double entendre to go.

[Bryn]

May your cob be well-filled ...

A brave attempt to get back on topic? What inspired Sibelius was made into a terrine by our erstwhile Master of the Queen's Music.

Then there's:

King Henry Tudor, lucky chap, had numerous opportunities to enjoy a wedding banquet. Historically, a wedding feast was the monarch’s opportunity to display his wealth and power, and Henry was no exception. His first wedding to Catherine of Aragon in 1509 was followed by a three-day-long feast, whose centrepiece was a swan, stuffed with a lark, stuffed with a sparrow.

[Beef Oven!]

A brave attempt to get back on topic? What inspired Sibelius was made into a terrine by our erstwhile Master of the Queen's Music.

What else was he supposed to do, leave it there to rot?

[teamsaint]

Talking of back on topic, why on earth can't some audience members let the music actually finish before whooping, yelling, clapping, ordering pizza on their mobiles or whatever?

The end of the 5th symphony was really impacted very badly by this last night,and the 6th also .

[Bryn]

Talking of back on topic, why on earth can't some audience members let the music actually finish before whooping, yelling, clapping, ordering pizza on their mobiles or whatever?

The end of the 5th symphony was really impacted very badly by this last night,and the 6th also .

Oh how I empathise. Unfazed as I am by applause between movements (as long as it does not overlap with active music making), I do hope for a respectful gap between the end of a performance and the start of applause.

[Pulcinella]

My goddaughter (was out for a bite with her and her parents last night, which is why I'm on catch up!) was in the arena on Saturday and had someone next to her munching popcorn!

[Beef Oven!]

Talking of back on topic, why on earth can't some audiences let the music actually finish before whooping, yelling, clapping, ordering pizza on thei mobiles or whatever?

The end of the 5th symphony was really impacted very badly by this last night,and the 6th also .

Yes, it really detracted from the enjoyment of the performance for me (and you of course!).

I don't judge what people do, or how they express their appreciation, but can't they wait 4 seconds?

In the case of the ending of the fifth, the violinists immediately to Vankska's left, were still moving their bows across the strings and even with my poor hearing I could still hear music when people started clapping and whooping. It makes me seethe, I could crush a grape.

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

Paavo Berglund, if a set exists.

As Bryn says, three different sets are available:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B0091JQH2Q

(the one Bryn favours, with a particularly fine Horn section - and almost obscenely cheap!)

http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B00002472T

... the Helsinki set doesn't appear to be available as a single box at the moment, but can be obtained on a couple of EMI "twofers", remarkably cheap second-hand.

Nonetheless (as I said on the Thread that Cali links to) my own favourite set (at the moment) is from a different provincial band, where the nearest thing to a tide comes from the ship canal:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Sibelius-Complete-Symphonies-tone-poems/dp/B00D56ACOK/ref=sr_1_1

... again, ridiculously cheap - at these prices, you can buy both the Berglund/Bournemouth, and the Barbirolli for around the price of a single full-price CD!

[Beef Oven!]

Nonetheless (as I said on the Thread that Cali links to) my own favourite set (at the moment) is from a different provincial band, where the nearest thing to a tide comes from the ship canal:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Sibelius-Com...COK/ref=sr_1_1

Never mind ships and canals, if JB's first movement of #3 was a car, we'd have to get out and push!

Great set otherwise, IMV.

[jayne lee wilson]

PROM 43. SIBELIUS SYMPHONIES 6 & 7. BBCSO/VANSKA.

Almost from the first bars of the 6th Symphony, I was aware of a purity of tone, an authority of interpretative approach, that (despite a fine 3rd from Volkov/BBCSSO) had been missing from earlier in this cycle.The Sibelian Master had arrived to show the apprentices a thing or two. There's no rhetoric here, no imposition of directorial personality, no tasty fat on the tonal bone; just a careful observation of the shape and dynamic of each phrase (note the varying of level even within the 6th's slow introduction) and an almost subliminally subtle view of a movement's architecture. So the climax of the opening allegro was dramatic only in the stark suddenness, against the lift and flow of the main argument, of the ffs and silences. This music needs nothing more.

Pacing for the allegretto seemed more than moderate, but surely this is right: it's the slower, reflective foil to the almost-perpetual motion of the 1st movement. The rhythms are always alive, but never forced - a lovely feathery lift - but the varying of colour (strings especially) and pace in this movement, almost imperceptible, was truly exceptional - and easily missed. Sensed rather than heard.

So the poco vivace picked up the pace without ever sounding rushed or frenetic, leading attacca in this performance into a finale which to these ears sounded slightly superior even to the excellent Lahti SO recording - just a shade more relaxed, a little more room to breathe; that unerring sense of the movement's shape, the inevitability of the extended climax, the winding down to a totally unsentimental final fade...

***

Vanska's Brucknerian sense of a single underlying pulse (which I've come to feel is just as important in playing Sibelius) was equally apparent in a 7th which, if not quite as finely played (5,6, and 7 in one night - it IS a demanding program), was still impressive for its authority and purity of utterance: listen to the opening ascent in the strings, or the hushed eloquence of the long adagio which eventually leads to the first trombone statement. Such precise care to realise the sound, the subtle shading of dynamic - the Sibelian voice. The fluid structure of the work, which on one view can be seen to revolve around two adagios, two scherzos, and three declamations - was realised with a naturalness making light of other conductors' over-acted struggles. But then the climax itself was almost a shock - sudden intensity and power held in reserve until this single moment; then a carefully-shaped final cadence and crescendo needing nothing beyond the notes - except the BBCSO's precise delivery.

Osmo Vanska (perhaps the only successor to Berglund in this repertoire) lent the BBC Symphony his own, so Sibelian voice - or perhaps simply that of Sibelius himself. This surely, is how it's done.

(R3 HDs via JRMC, fine engineering - the 6th exceptional in its clarity, accurately conveying this conductors' approach).

[edashtav]

PROM 43. SIBELIUS SYMPHONIES 6 & 7. BBCSO/VANSKA.

[Of Vanska...]The Sibelian Master had arrived to show the apprentices a thing or two. There's no rhetoric here, no imposition of directorial personality, no tasty fat on the tonal bone; just a careful observation of the shape and dynamic of each phrase (note the varying of level even within the 6th's slow introduction) and an almost subliminally subtle view of a movement's architecture. So the climax of the opening allegro was dramatic only in the stark suddenness, against the lift and flow of the main argument, of the ffs and silences. This music needs nothing more.

Pacing for the allegretto seemed more than moderate, but surely this is right: it's the slower, reflective foil to the almost-perpetual motion of the 1st movement. The rhythms are always alive, but never forced - a lovely feathery lift - but the varying of colour (strings especially) and pace in this movement, almost imperceptible, was truly exceptional - and easily missed. Sensed rather than heard.

So the poco vivace picked up the pace without ever sounding rushed or frenetic, leading attacca in this performance into a finale which to these ears sounded slightly superior even to the excellent Lahti SO recording - just a shade more relaxed, a little more room to breathe; that unerring sense of the movement's shape, the inevitability of the extended climax, the winding down to a totally unsentimental final fade... [ my emphasis

***
Vanska's Brucknerian sense of a single underlying pulse (which I've come to feel is just as important in playing Sibelius) was equally apparent in a 7th which, if not quite as finely played (5,6, and 7 in one night - it IS a demanding program), was still impressive for its authority and purity of utterance: listen to the opening ascent in the strings, or the hushed eloquence of the long adagio which eventually leads to the first trombone statement. Such precise care to realise the sound, the subtle shading of dynamic - the Sibelian voice. The fluid structure of the work, which on one view can be seen to revolve around two adagios, two scherzos, and three declamations - was realised with a naturalness making light of other conductors' over-acted struggles. But then the climax itself was almost a shock - sudden intensity and power held in reserve until this single moment; then a carefully-shaped final cadence and crescendo needing nothing beyond the notes - except the BBCSO's precise delivery.

Osmo Vanska (perhaps the only successor to Berglund in this repertoire) lent the BBC Symphony his own, so Sibelian voice - or perhaps simply that of Sibelius himself. This surely, is how it's done.
[ my emphasis & colour]
(R3 HDs via JRMC, fine engineering - the 6th exceptional in its clarity, accurately conveying this conductors' approach.

A wonderful and insightful review of Vanska and the last two symphonies in this satisfying cycle, Jayne. To add more would risk redundancy and Sibelius's wrath. Thank you.

[Petrushka]

Writing of a very special kind from JLW again. It makes me want to hear these performances again right now.

How lucky this forum is to be able to share in writing of this quality. Thanks from me too, Jayne.

[Beef Oven!]

Here's The Guardian review. Makes me wonder if we were at the same gig. Although his "....The usually heroic Fifth, however, was more muted and troubling than we sometimes experience it..." Could be his coded version of my 'seriously underwhelmed'.

He seems to imply that in the second half things picked up a bit - if so, I agree.

But of the seventh he says ".....The Seventh was a statement of great nobility, its emotional trajectory immediate and superbly negotiated, the drama and logic of its single-movement structure admirably focused and taut...." Saying this about S7 is so hackneyed that it has no value at all. I have about 23 recordings of S7 on my shelf that I could say that about - that's how Sibelius wrote the music! Any competent professional conductor should be able to do that.

Am I being naive about music journalists, or just wrong? Answers on a postcard..............