Mackerras and Dvořák
or Janáček or Martinů or Mozart
- now those are familiar 'teams'; Mackerras
and Sibelius much less so. Yet here
we are revisiting, at Regis's irresistible
price, an IMP collection first issued
during the mid-1990s.
In fact his fleet-footed
Sibelius 2 works very well though it
lacks the full-on incendiary qualities
of Barbirolli (RPO on Chesky) or the
uproariously live Beecham (BBC Legends).
Mackerras keeps things moving, ever
pressing forward. Yet he does not scout
over the tenderness to be heard in the
breathy whispered effervescence of the
second movement. The gruff and mordant
brass are well put across to the listener
in the finale. Such is the transparency
of the recording that instrumental lines,
too easily lost in a generalised miasma
in other versions, can here be heard
clearly. Only in the cumulative fortissimo
weight of the final pages is some of
the transparency lost. This is an urgently
communicative performance strengthened
by the waxing opulence of the LSO strings.
The RPO are Mackerras's
partners for the Karelia Suite which
is good rather than striking. Both Okko
Kamu (DG) and Collins (Beulah) have
projected greater subtlety, frisson
and tension in the brooding Intermezzo.
The Alla marcia is graciously
pointed and is given a beaming performance.
Christine Pendrill's
honey-toned cor anglais is with the
LSO as Mackerras's 'swan' in the Swan
of Tuonela. I must also single out
the gaunt timpani ostinato - a metaphor
for the deathly realm of Tuonela; it
provides punctuation and continuity
for this magical piece. For all that
this is an early work from the 1890s
the string writing looks forward two
decades to the shivering gleam of the
Fourth and Sixth symphonies. There are
many excellent Swans but I recommend
Ormandy on EMI, Mravinsky's on BMG-Melodiya
and Scribendum and the even more atmospherically
potent version by Ole Schmidt on Regis
RRC 1216.
James Murray does good
service with the notes which places
these early works in the context of
Finnish nationalism, the championing
of the music by Kajanus and Sibelius
finding of his own voice.
Not quite up there
with Regis's classic Sibelius/Schmidt
collection on RRC 1216 (which has Mackerras's
Finlandia as a make-weight - review)
but not far behind. A good bargain price
collection with an uncloying and quick-pulsed
Sibelius 2 as well as an intriguing
Swan of Tuonela.
Rob Barnett
London Symphony Orchestra/Charles Mackerras
