These recordings have
a considerable reputation but were new
to me. I wasn’t born when they were
made and, generally, I do not get misty-eyed
hearing old recordings. I first heard
all Sibelius’s symphonies about thirty
years ago when, as an impecunious student,
I persuaded my father to buy Lorin Maazel’s
1960s Vienna Philharmonic set. Subsequently
I have also come to know complete cycles
made in the 1970s by Colin Davis with
the Boston Symphony Orchestra and in
the 1980s by Vladimir Ashkenazy with
Philharmonia Orchestra. Below I have
made some comparisons with these versions
but there are more modern traversals
with which I am not familiar - for example
Davis’s LSO remakes. Furthermore I haven’t
yet managed to collect any Finnish artists
– Paavo Berglund has recorded them more
than once and cycles from Osmo Vänskä
in Lahti and Sakari Oramo in Birmingham
are among the most recent to appear.
First, I should deal
with the sonic issues. Made just before
the advent of stereo but at a time when
recording techniques were improving
dramatically, these recordings were
originally issued on Decca and Kenneth
Wilkinson was amongst the engineers.
They were remastered a few years ago
by Simon Heyworth and are supposed to
sound best when played through a single
speaker. I imagine few people will be
listening on high-specification equipment
in that mode but they do sound very
good for the period when played
through two speakers. It would be surprising
if the sound were preferable to most
modern recordings and it is not. Huge
advances in recording techniques were
obvious enough by the time the Maazel
made his cycle in Vienna for the same
label a decade later. That sound seems
quite a bit preferable in immediacy
and clarity to Davis’s Boston recordings.
Ashkenazy’s early digital cycle, again
for Decca, represented a further major
advance. More than twenty years after
they were made, this may still be about
as good as it gets.
Coming back to the
Collins, there were advances in sound
quality evident over the three-year
period that these recordings were made.
In a nutshell, the earliest recordings,
the First and Second, require more tolerance
than the rest of the symphonies. In
addition to marginally less overall
clarity, there are patches of pre-echo
in some of the "silences"
in these works and quite a bit of extraneous
noise in the first movement of the Second
Symphony which was presumably inaudible
in the days of LP. In the last to be
recorded, the Fifth and Sixth symphonies,
the sound is remarkably good. Overall,
the sound rarely distracts the listener
and conveys well internal orchestral
balances and the power of these interpretations.
The documentation is not luxurious and
lacks precise recording dates (these
are given in Rob Barnett’s review of
the individual discs which is linked
below) and individual movement timings.
There are brief notes on the music and
a reasonably substantial piece about
Anthony Collins (1893-1963) and how
he came to record these works.
Collins’ approach to
Sibelius sounds fresh and free of performing
traditions. Apparently he contacted
the aging composer about metronome markings
and received a reply that the conductor
should have "liberty to get performance
living". In this regard, Collins’s
interpretations seem nearer to the spirit,
if not always the letter, of the scores
than most.
In the First
Symphony Collins adopts notably
fast tempi for the first movement Allegro
energico and the third movement
Scherzo. In doing so he generates
tremendous excitement but also retains
a good sense of atmosphere. The balances
at opening of 3rd and 4th
movements are notably different from
my comparison recordings – he holds
back the volume of the timpani and brass
punctuations respectively and their
later contributions are more telling
for it. After hearing Collins’ performance
a couple of times I went back to the
others and really didn’t want to listen
to Davis’s under-energised approach
any more.
In the Second
Symphony Collins is again pretty
quick particularly in the outer movements.
He holds together well the various strands
of slow movement - although Ashkenazy
is even finer here - and his scherzo
is the most exciting. Interestingly,
the score gives a tenuto at the
end of the repeated note oboe theme
in the trio but not for the shorter
riposte on the cellos. Davis alone makes
one in both places and it sounds wrong
to me. Unsurprisingly, there is no wallowing
from Collins in the big tunes of the
finale but he achieves grandeur without
lingering and the very end seems almost
abrupt.
This performance of
the Third Symphony is
characterised by fast tempi in each
of the movements. In terms of the comparisons
being made, nobody does it faster in
any of the movements although Maazel’s
timing in the first movement is identical.
Most striking - and possibly most justifiable
- is Collins’ approach to the second
movement: marked Andantino con moto,
quasi allegretto. Near the beginning
of the finale there seem to be some
missing wispy violin passages starting
at 0:34. These are marked in the Dover
score and are easily audible in four
other recorded versions I have available
- the sets mentioned above plus Rattle’s
CBSO recording of 1985 - but they certainly
cannot be heard here. Their absence
alters the character of the music at
this point and, if anyone knows the
reason for this, I should be interested
to hear about it. Although Collins’
tempi for this work initially seemed
hard to accept, they are starting to
grow on me. Again, other versions can
seem ponderous after hearing this and,
particularly in the first two movements,
a modern tendency to linger may not
be advantageous.
In the Fourth
Symphony Collins’ tempi are
quite middle-of-road and this is a good
all-round performance but, for me, not
one that completely conveys the character
of the music. I find Lorin Maazel’s
reading does that best – it has a real
feeling of vehemence in the right places.
At the opposite end of the spectrum
are Karajan and Davis with generally
slow tempi - although the latter is
quick in the finale - frequently lending
an aura of barren desolation. Ashkenazy’s
approach is the most similar to Collins
and, as in the rest of his cycle, the
sound bowls you over.
There is no need to
say much about the Fifth Symphony
which gets a splendid all-round
performance. Tempi once again seem apposite
and Collins is sensitive to the quasi
allegretto element of the slow movement.
This is a more seamless performance
than the others under comparison here,
of which Ashkenazy seems to be the nearest
challenger. Davis is again slow in the
first two movements. His recent LSO
live performance seems preferable to
me in every way aside from the added
vocalise.
The Sixth Symphony
is my personal favourite of the symphonies
– a desert island piece that invariably
leaves me spellbound. Collins certainly
does that in a reading which captures
well the unique atmosphere of this piece.
As it should be, this is played pretty
straight and the only controversial
point is the fairly slow tempo for the
second movement Allegretto moderato.
In fact, Collins is even slower than
Karajan but he sustains it well. I certainly
prefer this version to Karajan which
seems a bit mannered at times. Maazel
sometimes sounds romantic in the first
movement and is very quick in the second.
His is the least successful of the comparison
versions. Davis in Boston is probably
the main rival to Collins here - preferable
in this work to his LSO live version
- and I also like Petri Sakari’s reading
for Naxos with generally slow tempi.
Overall, though, Collins’ version is
as fine as any I have yet heard.
The Seventh Symphony
is in some ways the most
enigmatic and hardest to bring off.
Here Collins convincingly presents the
work in almost a single sweep but in
some ways this seems understated, at
least by the side of Maazel. His Vienna
Philharmonic brass contributions are
more telling and ultimately Maazel builds
up much greater tension. Collins’ view
is undoubtedly valid and in his hands
the work seems to follow on logically
from the Sixth but, if you take the
view that Sibelius was here reaching
for something very different, you may
not find it completely satisfying.
I do not propose to
say much about the fillers since they
are unlikely to be a major factor in
determining whether or not to purchase
the discs. That is not to say they are
not worth having – on the contrary,
Pohjola’s Daughter and
the relatively rare Nightride
and Sunrise are given most worthwhile
renditions. Unfortunately there are
only five excerpts from Pelléas
and Mélisande i.e. about
the half the suite. Collins achieves
great pathos in the Death of Mélisande
and a complete version from him might
even have rivalled Beecham. A further
regret is that there is no Tapiola,
presumably because he didn’t record
it. However, the Karelia
Overture is a nice opener
for the first disc and could well be
useful as it is often excluded from
orchestral compilations that inevitably
contain the suite.
Coming back to the
symphonies, to summarise, Collins’ Sibelius
generally tends to be quick, rugged
and rendered with conviction. Received
wisdom is that the first two symphonies
owe a debt to Tchaikovsky, following
which Sibelius went his own way. In
these performances that debt was minimised
as Collins eschews much of the potential
Romanticism. His performances of the
first two symphonies are particularly
fine, as are the Fifth and Sixth. The
Third is fascinating but controversially
fast while the Fourth and the Seventh
do not quite scale the heights. In both
those works I clearly prefer Lorin Maazel’s
readings and for them in particular,
I shall be keeping his set along with
Ashkenazy’s consistently satisfactory
traversal. On rehearing it, the Davis
cycle disappointed me considerably,
particularly in the earlier works, perhaps
as his approach often seemed to be the
antithesis of Collins.
These discs not seem
to be available separately at present
but this probably matters little as
most interested collectors are likely
to want them all. Should they be issued
separately with the same couplings,
the second disc containing Symphonies
Nos. 2 and 6 would be my recommended
sampler.
Finally, I should add
a few words about cost. A quick search
of my favourite UK website for purchasing
CDs found ten complete sets of the Sibelius
symphonies. This one was jointly the
most expensive along with Osmo Vänskä’s
readings on BIS. Lorin Maazel’s set
was the cheapest - containing only the
symphonies - coming in at about half
the cost of Collins. The situation is
complicated by the variety of fillers
and the range of three to eight discs
involved in these various sets but this
one is clearly not a bargain. Nevertheless
it is sufficiently interesting to be
worth anyone’s money. The fact that
one can now supplement it with an excellent
cycle in modern sound more cheaply –
my suggestion would be Ashkenazy’s –
is perhaps not as topsy-turvy as it
might at first seem. Modern cycles are
now "two-a-penny" but the
one conducted by Collins was, and is
still, in a class of its own.
Patrick C Waller
BUY
NOW
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Link to Rob Barnett’s previous review
of individual discs:
http://www.musicweb-international.com/classrev/oct99/sibcollins.htm
Links to other articles on MusicWeb
about Sibelius symphonies:
http://www.musicweb-international.com/classrev/nov99/sibeliussurvey.htm
http://www.musicweb-international.com/classrev/2002/Sept02/Sibelius_Brewer.htm
London Symphony Orchestra/Anthony Collins
