Sibelius: Orchestral Works

Sibelius' smaller-scale orchestral works usually appear as fillers on discs devoted to the symphonies. This collection of five independent works (originally released on Finlandia) makes an enticing package. Davis' Stockholm orchestra is recorded in a large, resonant acoustic, lending extra weight and presence to his generally idiomatic presentations. Davis forges a gripping Tapiola in which the slow procession of hymn-like major-key chords has an uncannily cathartic effect at the end of this intense performance. The dense sonorities of the Stockholm lower strings provide a hugely effective backdrop for the black waters of Tuonela, with first-class English horn and cello soloists.

En Saga receives a highly charged reading, only wanting the frenetic energy that others (Berglund, Salonen, or Ashkenazy) bring to the faster sections. But the superbly balanced Apex recording conveys maximal detailing across a vast dynamic range, so ostinato string figures are never so trenchant as to obscure important lower-register wind scoring, and the brass (trumpets and horns particularly) retain looming presence in tuttis. Finlandia gets a warmly affectionate treatment (with a particularly impressive statement of its passionately patriotic central section), but the highlight of this excellent disc is Davis' outstanding account of The Oceanides, more rapturously evocative and atmospheric than Järvi's and better recorded than Rattle's EMI version. A wonderful disc. --Michael Jameson, ClassicsToday

Smetana & Sibelius: String Quartets

'By the time of the Second Quartet, Smetana's final madness was almost upon him; the Dante's characterise its rapid mood changes with a cold intensity. This is a splendid issue' --BBC Music Magazine

'The Dante Quartet can scarcely be faulted … Each performance is eloquent, intense and emotionally gripping … the D minor Quartet has an entirely appropriate earthiness and the urgency of all the fast movements is compelling' --Gramophone Magazine

BBC MUSIC MAGAZINE CHAMBER MUSIC CHOICE

'These performances are superb - the Dante Quartet players really have the ability to bring music alive and sustain the listener through these examples of the quartet repertoire that may still be finding homes. Blessed with first-class sound and excellent annotation, this generous release is a winner' --International Record Review

'The Dante Quartet has developed into a force to be reckoned with … Each player contributes bag-loads of personality, drawing out the chill winds of Sibelius and the earthy rhythms of Smetana's Czech polkas' --Classic FM Magazine

Sibelius & Khachaturian: Violin Concertos

“This new coupling confirms Sergey Khachatryan as among the most compelling players of his generation. … He moves around the [Sibelius] score with what seems like comparative ease, always intense though with a mode of attack that stops short of roughness.” --Gramophone Magazine

Gramophone Magazine
Editor's Choice - January 2004

“Sergey Khachatryan is among the most compelling players of his generation. Being the youngest- ever winner of the Sibelius Competition (2000) he was bound to record the Sibelius Concerto.

Interestingly, his conductor, Emmanuel Krivine, had already recorded the work with a star player of a slightly older generation, Vadim Repin. Common to both is a mellow, fairly softcore approach to the orchestral score, the new Sinfonia Varsovia recording, probably using a smaller band, warmer overall and with superior sound quality. Khachatryan's approach is smoother and more flexible, especially in the first movement's first cadenza, which he accelerates by stages, and the great leap that launches the second cadenza, which he edges into on a finely calculated crescendo. He moves around the score with comparative ease, always intense though with a mode of attack that stops short of roughness.

His sound in the lower registers is rich and fulsome, yet even at piano or thereabouts, he still manages to sustain a full-bodied tone.

Similar qualities inform the Khachaturian Concerto with a crisp, lightly articulated opening and seductive handling of the first movement's second set. In the finale Khachatryan knows how to coax a workable ebb and flow, ease his tone, lighten tension to facilitate a change in musical current. Again, Krivine and his team are sympathetic collaborators for a highly commendable performance.” --Gramophone Classical Music Guide, 2010

Intimate Voices

“…a strong, sympathetic performance of Sibelius's one mature quartet, Voces Intimae, can make you regret that he didn't stick with the medium. …it's good to hear this music taken so seriously, and so shaped so powerfully. The recordings are as fine as this truly outstanding playing deserves.” --BBC Music Magazine, April 2006 *****

“In the Grieg, a powerful, emphatic style highlights the music's passionate intensity. …a magnificent performance… of the Sibelius… with a deeply felt Adagio and, in the finale, playing of such poise, crispness and vitality as to outpace even the 1930s Budapest.” --Gramophone Magazine, June 2006

"La expresividad del Cuarteto Emerson, su infatigable disciplina, esa sonoridad redonda, preciosa (el primer violín es un Stradivarius conocido como Duque de Alba), la singular potencia de cada pupitre, permite que recomendemos este disco como la referencia de cada una de las tres piezas." --CD Compact (Barcelona)

Sibelius: The Complete Works for Violin and Orchestra

Primarily a commander of turgid orchestral forces and vibrant musical landscapes, Finnish composer Jean Sibelius brought his formidable musical gift to just a single concerto. It is for violin, unsurprisingly; early on, Sibelius had aspired to a career as a concert violinist. His understanding of the instrument, his gargantuan Wagnerian orchestration, and his unabashed lyricism have succeeded in putting that single concerto at the heart of the violin repertoire, and it remains one of the most popular concertos written after 1900.

The demands on the violinist in the concerto (as well as the dozen or so violin works) are greater than the usual fast fingers. The virtuosity of a good Sibelius player is something more: a study in contrasts of light and dark, hot and cold, sadness and mirth. Quite an imposing musical task.

German violinist Christian Tetzlaff has all the right tools in his shed. His eternal, liquid line and burly, burnished tone are ideally suited to he retro romanticism of Sibelius. He plays with understatement, emotive through a prevalent stoicism that gives way at, ooh, just the right times to unequivocal gush and guts. The sweet Humoresques are tender and nostalgic, the Serenades warm and effulgent.

The rarely-recorded pictorial Suite is completely rapturous, and Tetzlaff is a knockout in the closing moto perpetuo. Simply a magnificent recording. -- David Simmons, WQXR

Seriously Sibelius

“Another Sibelius CD of exceptional interest and fascination from Lahti and Osmo Vänskä in the BIS complete survey. Impressive playing throughout an excellent recording.” --BBC Music Magazine, November 2006 *****

“The centrepiece of this fine collection is a reconstruction of Lemminkäinen in Tuonela as it sounded at the April 1896 Helsinki premiere. When Sibelius reworked the score in 1939, he excised at least 108 bars, including an impressive 32-bar introduction and a hefty chunk of the ghostly A minor central episode.

Annotator Andrew Barnett tells us that the Op 77 Two Serious Melodies, for violin and orchestra, were first heard in March 1916 in Sibelius's arrangement for cello. Soloist Marko Ylönen is a rapt proponent of this headily lovely diptych, while the Lahti SO's leader Jaakko Kuusisto is a model of sensitive agility in the first version (from 1917) of the enchanting Humoresque No 1 in D minor.

The Three Pieces contain a fetching 18th-century pastiche, 'Autrefois', which incorporates a setting for soprano and contralto of a poem by Hjalmar Procopé. Bookending the programme are the original and revised versions (from 1909 and 1910 respectively) of the funeral march In memoriam, a stark yet noble (and at times intriguingly Mahlerian) processional to remind us that the uncompromising Fourth Symphony was not far off.
 

Vänskä and his bright-eyed Lahti band are on irreproachable form, and the BIS production crews have come up trumps once again with resplendently natural sound.” --Gramophone Classical Music Guide, 2010

MP3 320 ·  172 MB

Prokofiev, Sibelius: Violin Concertos

Ilya Gringolts is a player of formidable technique and considerable musical imagination, and finds congenial partners here in the vastly experienced Neeme Järvi and his Gothenburg orchestra. The Sibelius Concertio is performed with great strength and poetry . . . --BBC Music Magazine

Ilya Gringolts has something to offer to listeners in the notes as well as in his performances . . . Gringolts manages to combine Oistrakh's mystical intensity, especially to the outer movements, with Szigeti's caustic asperity . . . He makes bold gestures with plenty of tonal resources to spare, never crossing over into either indulgent warmth or rough edginess.

Gringolts speaks of the magical moments a soloist experiences after the sound of the last movement dies away. His own reading of that final page serves as a transcendental explication of his remarks . . . His readings, by turns fey and ardent, make these pieces out to be miniatures collectively of rather more importance than they've generally been taken to be by other performers . . .

Ilya Gringolts seems to be one of the handful of violinists of the younger generation who takes risks to personalize what he plays -- and generally succeeds. His musical intelligence makes as strong an impression as does his technical preparedness . . . Strongly recommended.

--Robert Maxham, Fanfare, 01 November 2004

MP3 320 · 150 MB