Jean SIBELIUS (1865-1957)
Symphony No. 6 (1923) [30.22]
Symphony No. 7 (1924) [22.45]
Tempest Suite No. 2 (1926) [18.10]
Iceland SO/Petri Sakari
rec Reykjavik, 11-12 Feb, 23-25 March 2000
NAXOS 8.554387
[71.17]
Crotchet
AmazonUK
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It has taken me far too long to catch up with this Naxos's second Sibelius
cycle. The first is conducted by the much travelled Adrian Leaper and is
still available as a boxed set. Sakari has the benefit of a Nordic orchestra
and the clear-eyed transparency of Naxos's most natural and lapel-gripping
recording. The works are too well known to require detailed attention. Sakari
imbues the music with vitality - the vibration and the icy quickening of
the best Sibelius interpretations is on show here. After the heaviness of
the Colin Davis Boston symphony Fifth and Seventh the lilt and splash of
the Icelandic 'take' on Sibelius brings us back to true north. The Iceland
Symphony is not as luxurious an instrument as the Boston Symphony but what
it lacks in sleek affluence it compensates for in clarity of texture and
character. The Tempest suite is grace personified and, minus the Prelude,
makes for refined light music to satisfy the finest sensibility - not a shred
of kitsch. A sorbet between two main courses.
As acoustics go the Reykjavik concert hall does not have the colossal Speer-like
dimensions of the Boston SO Hall for the Philips 50 Sibelius 5 and 7.
I have made a note to catch up with the other discs in this promising cycle.
Rob Barnett
