Hearing these extremely well scrubbed-up
recordings reminded me how unsentimental
a conductor Kajanus was. In his Sibelius
things are kept moving briskly; there
are very few dewy-eyed moments. Listen
to the way he pushes the orchestra in
the gulped and galloped close of the
first movement. Then try the conspiratorial
and sweetly pressurised tension of the
finale at (4.46). On the other hand
he is content to allow a gentle pointillism
to register its own effect in the Andante
Mosso.
Kajanus's Tapiola
is even more impressive. Every little
shudder and tremor registers in perfectly
balanced gradation. Even the woodwind
shrieks at 3.20 are given without the
overlay of emphasis we find in most
modern performances. They come and go
with inhuman concentration. This version
of Tapiola brought out powerfully
the evolution of Sibelius's character
from the romantic hell-raiser of En
Saga to the forbidding mage of the
Northern forests in Tapiola.
Kajanus makes a deeply impressive gale
which plies the Finnish saplings double
(14.02-15:01). Even his progressive
diminution of the gale is grippingly
done; such is the control he exercises.
The documentation is
good and extensive in English only.
There’s a welcome technical note from
Andrew Rose who has virtually eliminated
high frequency hiss. He has also removed
most of the crackling ‘bacon frying’
sound so typical of HMV 78s of the 1930s.
That this detritus has gone and that
he has managed to preserve the impact
of music-making now getting on for eighty
years old merits high praise. I hope
we will hear more from Mr Rose in the
future. Incidentally, I also hope that
his commitment to Divine Art projects
will not prevent his keeping his immensely
valuable Moeran website up to date.
Georg Schnéevoigt
and his Helsinki Symphony Orchestra
were seen as adversaries of Kajanus
and his Helsinki Orchestral Society.
After the Great War the Helsinki Symphony
Orchestra and the Orchestral Society
were merged. Both Kajanus and Schnéevoigt
(1872-1947) are unsentimental yet generate
plenty of atmosphere. Both keep things
moving along. It is this refusal to
dawdle that marks out Schnéevoigt’s
version of the Sixth Symphony. His orchestra
are pushed to their limits and beyond.
Beecham’s RPO in 1947 managed things
better but for a modern recording let
me strongly recommend Sakari Oramo’s
powerhouse of a performance on Warner-Erato.
Divine Art beat Naxos
to the draw with cleaned up revivals
of these 1930s historicals. If you do
not already have these and are a dedicated
Sibelian then there is no reason to
hold back. Given their historical sound
these cannot be first recommendations
but the Sibelian spirit burns brightly
in these readings made during the lifetime
of the composer even if the 1930s marked
the start of three decades of silence
from Järvenpäa.
Unsentimental yet not
clinical readings. Historically significant
for dedicated Sibelians. Perhaps you
object to the Naxos or Pearl approach
of leaving in place the hiss and crackle
stigmata of the 1930s. Here Andrew Rose's
sprucing up has produced highly listenable
recordings which represent a more interventionist
approach than some fundamentalists favour.
I hope that Divine Art and Andrew Rose
will now look at the other Sibelius
Society issues. When they are done and
dusted I have the highest hopes that
they might tackle Boult's superb 1950s
recordings of the tone poems.
Rob Barnett
London
SO/Robert Kajanus (Opp. 82, 112) 
