Fik et spørgsmål om dette sæt på chatten i aftes – så gik chatten i sort. Synes nu ikke det var et uartigt ?
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Nå den gode finne skal jo have en tråd, hans musik er stærk og vedkommende og er i Wifi’s top 3 komponister. Det gør nok heller ikke noget at det er musik der ”klæder” godt hifi.
Sibelius symfonier 1-2-3-4-5-6-7 + en række tonedigte, og selvføli Finlandia. Bournemouth Symphony/Paavo Berglund.
Jeg har de fleste af disse Berglund EMI’er på vinyl, og sammen med Askenazhy’s DECCA’er er det mine vinylfavoritter i Sibelius. Berglund er ikke død endnu så hans vinylplader kan fås til rimelige penge. Undtagen violinkoncerten hvor solisten Ida Haendel er nået til gudestatus – den er for dyr, men nok den bedste ever.
Jeg kender ikke oversættelsen til CD, men EMI plejer at kunne, så til prisen er sagen klar. Blandt de kortere værker bemærk også ”Pelleas et Melisande”, det er et fantastisk værk.
Berglund har lavet 3 serier, en på RCA og den vi har på CD på Finlandia. Finlandia udgaven er fremragende også i superb optagelse. Jeg købte den engang mega billigt hos Axel på Fredesberg.
RCA’en fik også blomster med af kritikerne, Berglund er unik i Sibelius. (fra hans Bourmouth periode findes også Shostakovich som vinylfans frivilligt ”knækker” deres pickupper på).
Der findes vildt mange gode Sibelius optagelser. Aktuelt er Leif Segerstam i gang igen, denne gang på ONDINE med hjemmebaneorkestret fra Helsinki.
Denne er reference hos Classics Today. Og vil uundgåeligt havne i basket en dag. Selvom der nok ikke er under 10 forskellige på hylderne.
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Pohjola's Daughter probably is my favorite Sibelius tone poem, and this is without question its finest performance on disc. In fact, I find it little short of amazing, and to describe each and every felicity of interpretation and execution would require a bar-by-bar analysis. But let me begin by saying that Leif Segerstam and the Helsinki Philharmonic, both here and in the Fourth Symphony, achieve that mysterious alchemy that produces great Sibelius: a perfect equilibrium between incidental detail and structural cogency. Pohjola's Daughter is particularly treacherous in this regard, and there are three places where most performances are likely to go wrong. The first occurs at the beginning, where after the dark introduction (never more primal or texturally aware than here), the movement begins its transition to the initial allegro. Segerstam not only picks ideal basic tempos, he also builds the energy gradually, so that the great brass chorale to which the passage leads erupts with complete inevitability from what has come before.
The next danger spot is also transitional: the end of the development, from the daughter's mocking laughter (second time around) to the recapitulation. Here Segerstam permits a bit of rhetorical emphasis, milking the mockery to brilliant effect and building the ensuing fracas to a huge climax, but then returning immediately to Tempo I so that the recapitulation takes off like a shot--exactly the opposite of what happened at the beginning of the piece. It's a subtle distinction, but one that underlines the drama of the work's narrative thread. Finally, at the big return of principal allegro, Segerstam superbly manages the tricky balances between orchestral sections as the theme gets tossed between brass and woodwinds. Usually this turns out to be a mess, with either the winds buried by the string ostinatos, or the brass unnaturally held back. Segerstam lets the trumpets strut their stuff, manages to keep the winds audible, and never suggests that the strings aren't chugging along full-bore. And you can still hear the harp. If you love this work you badly need to listen to this.
Happily, the performance of the Fourth Symphony remains at the same exalted level, easily on par with the finest available. Segerstam has picked up his pace a bit, all to the good, in comparison with his soft-focus previous Danish Radio recording for Chandos; but even more significantly he once again manages to plumb the depths of the music's colors and textures without any sacrifice in momentum. Always careful when it comes to matters of string articulation, his approach pays huge dividends in both outer movements. The symphony's opening never has sounded more like a desperate groping toward the light--and listen to how effortlessly but powerfully the Helsinki brass manage those tricky transitional crescendos, capped by true nobility of tone in the chorale that introduces the second subject.
A beautifully shaped oboe solo graces much of the scherzo, and Segerstam understands how to emphasize the darkness in the second half of the movement without any slackening in tension. The third movement, Il tempo largo, flows in such a way that its fragmented phrases and spasmodic melodies fit together like the pieces of a puzzle, and the music is all the more bleak and powerful with its continuity thus preserved. In the finale Segerstam correctly uses the glockenspiel, even managing to respect Sibelius' "sonore" directive at the central climax without additional help from tubular bells. Everyone plays their hearts out here, culminating in an anguished and despairing coda whose bleakness never lapses into stasis. The grim final pages set the seal on what has been an outstanding Sibelius symphony cycle, of which this strikes me as the finest release of all. As a bonus, Ondine includes a fervent Finlandia in its version with male choir, and the engineering is truly outstanding--at one with the music and ensuring that the whole production sounds just plain gorgeous. These are essential, revelatory interpretations that no Sibelian worth his stripes can afford to miss. [4/30/2005]
--David Hurwitz
