Prom 58: Sibelius – Kullervo (29.08.15)

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

19:30
Royal Albert Hall

Sakari Oramo conducts the BBC Symphony Orchestra live at the BBC Proms in an all-Sibelius programme: the tone poem En Saga and the epic Kullervo, with male voice chorus and soloists.

Sibelius: En Saga
Sibelius: Kullervo

Johanna Rusanen-Kartano (soprano)
Waltteri Torikka (baritone)
Polytech Choir
BBC Symphony Chorus (men's voices)
BBC Symphony Orchestra
Sakari Oramo (conductor)

Finnish conductor Sakari Oramo pairs two of Sibelius's most engagingly descriptive works as we continue our 150th-anniversary celebrations of the composer. The folk hero Kullervo was the inspiration behind a powerful national statement for a country struggling to overthrow Russian rule. This massive musical hybrid - part cantata, part symphony, part suite - is a vivid and thrilling work, richly melodic but looking ahead to modernism in some striking musical gestures. En saga is a fairy tale without a plot, whose contrasting movements suggest many possible stories, but never commit to just one.

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

Kullervo is so often dismissed, as was VW's Sea Symphony in days gone by. Yet both are really fine works, in the right hands.

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

Kullervo is so often dismissed, as was VW's Sea Symphony in days gone by. Yet both are really fine works, in the right hands.

Are they? Who "dismisses" them these days? (Well, apart from me - and that doesn't really count. Is Kullervo - receiving its fourth Proms performance this year [quite rightly as part of an Anniversary "cycle"] - really a "finer" work than the Lemminkainen Suite which has only received two complete Proms performances? Or, for that matter, The Bard - heard only once, back in 1989?)

[Roehre]

Kullervo is so often dismissed, as was VW's Sea Symphony in days gone by. Yet both are really fine works, in the right hands.

Sibelius himself forbade performing the work, but contrary to the Eighth Symphony/ies did not destroy it.
On the contrary: one of the last things he did in 1956 and '57 was revising parts of it (essentially thinning the orchestration), as e.g. with Kullervo's Lament .

[Hornspieler]

Sibelius himself forbade performing the work, but contrary to the Eighth Symphony/ies did not destroy it.
On the contrary: one of the last things he did in 1956 and '57 was revising parts of it (essentially thinning the orchestration), as e.g. with Kullervo's Lament .

It will be interesting to compare this programme with Berglund's ground breaking first ever recording (BSO, Helsinki University Male Voice Choir, Raiili Kostia and Usko Viitanen)

This 2 disk set, coupled with "Kuolema-Scene with Cranes", and the Incidental Music from "Swan White" was accorded a special award by HMV.

HS

[Bryn]

Sibelius himself forbade performing the work, but contrary to the Eighth Symphony/ies did not destroy it.
On the contrary: one of the last things he did in 1956 and '57 was revising parts of it (essentially thinning the orchestration), as e.g. with Kullervo's Lament .

My understanding was that though Sibelius withheld the work from publication during his lifetime, he permitted performances of two individual movements, the third and fourth, though only on rare occasions.

[Cockney Sparrow]

It will be interesting to compare this programme with Berglund's ground breaking first ever recording (BSO, Helsinki University Male Voice Choir, Raiili Kostia and Usko Viitanen)

This 2 disk set, coupled with "Kuolema-Scene with Cranes", and the Incidental Music from "Swan White" was accorded a special award by HMV.

HS

The recording I acquired and much admired.

I hope the BBC S Chorus are up to the Finnish, alongside the chorus from Helsinki.....

[EnemyoftheStoat]

I hope the BBC S Chorus are up to the Finnish, alongside the chorus from Helsinki.....

Why shouldn't they be?

[Roehre]

It will be interesting to compare this programme with Berglund's ground breaking first ever recording (BSO, Helsinki University Male Voice Choir, Raiili Kostia and Usko Viitanen)

This 2 disk set, coupled with "Kuolema-Scene with Cranes", and the Incidental Music from "Swan White" was accorded a special award by HMV.

HS

and that set is a much cherished one on my shelves

[Simon B]

Well, we've had many of the annual Proms traditions around here...

The traditional fractious applause between movements "debate" in which everyone reiterates their entrenched positions and sheds as much light as usual. Much determined unenjoying. Gasts being flabbered about this year's selection of randomly inserted "non-R3" Proms dreamy up by the W1A merchants at beeb corporate sloblock central. Ariosto reanimating to declare that almost everything, with the occasional singular exception is absolutely unlistenably dire and atrocious beyond belief - it's a point of view and I always enjoy the moment. References to Cassandra Lebrecht's latest predictions of doom for the whole enterprise. So it feels just like home.

Time for one more tradition then. The moment where I mumble on about how, as usual, it turns out that nearly all the really alive, committed, played-like-they-mean-it stuff is delivered not by the luxuriously upholstered glamour bands and the like but the overworked British orchestras, particularly the London and NW England contingent. Yes, ok, they have the statistical upper hand, but even so...

A particular pleasure to say that many of the really satisfying concerts so far are from the BBCSO, particularly with Sakari Oramo waving a stick about. The contrast with 10 or so years ago couldn't be greater.

What a contribution from the chorus this evening too. I wonder how much Finnish the men of the BBCSC have tackled before? Admittedly I can't speak a word, but it wasn't obvious which were the 87 members of the Polytech choir and which the Brits.

Can't imagine better advocacy for Kullervo than this and evidently thoroughly attentively enjoyed by most of a pretty good house for rare repertoire.

[Cockney Sparrow]

Just back from RAH. Hall mostly full, but I think some tickets may yet have been available. I think the Arena was really only half to two thirds full.

Oramo utterly committed, likewise his orchestra in fulfilling his vision of the piece. The wind section, the horns, all sections so accomplished.
He mouthed all the chorus words, and the words of the Baritone. I found the entry of the chorus, and their performance thereafter, thrilling, the contribution of the soloists very dramatic.
Another evening I will long remember.

Oh - and who started the applause - a chap in the stalls, must have been 70yrs old or more - seated near the orchestra on the right of the organ. He probably only just beat someone else, though, and there had been a little silence, but as ever I wish there had been more.......

[gurnemanz]

Our first and probably only live Prom this year. We set off about 4.30 listening with glee on the car radio to Crystal palace beating Chelsea. As we walked along Prince Consort Road at about 6.15 we were surprised to see no Arena queue whatsoever. Walking past us in the other direction was a seemingly endless stream of Finnish-speaking gentlemen clutching black music covers and heading for Imperial College - presumably not the bar, but changing facilities.

We knew Kullervo from CD (Vänskä) but it is not a work I have listened to much over the years. The work really came alive in the concert hall in a most exhilarating performance. The massive male choir, about 150 in all, sounded superb and had no difficulty filling the RAH space. Oramo seemed to be inspiring all involved, with BBSO not putting a foot wrong as far as I could tell. We were standing fairly near the front and got the full benefit of the two soloists' rapt emotional commitment and fine singing. A great night.

[richardfinegold]

Kullervo is so often dismissed, as was VW's Sea Symphony in days gone by. Yet both are really fine works, in the right hands.

I have never liked either piece, despite sampling several recordings of each.