Here’s an interesting
CD, spotlighting unknown works by a
great master. The main attraction of
this disc must be the new recording
of The Wood Nymph, a 21 minute
symphonic poem, written in 1895, but
unknown until the 1990s due to its never
being published. The story is simple:
Bjørn is bewitched by a wood
nymph, leaves his wife and home and
dies lonely, and, according to the notes
yearning – but for what isn’t explained
and the music doesn’t help me work this
out either. It starts with the kind
of music we associate with Lemminkäinen.
The Lemminkäinen Suite (Four
Legends), op.22 was written at about
the same time. This gives way to a slower,
chorale-like section whilst continuing
to develop the musical material already
presented. About half way through we
arrive at a lighter textured, slow,
section which is on a lower level of
inspiration than the opening music.
As Sibelius works up the tension to
the close there is a strong feeling
that he is merely marking time. So the
first half is very fine indeed, the
second less so. If only Sibelius had
returned to this work, as he did the
Lemminkäinen Suite, we might
have had another masterpiece. I do find
it odd that Sibelius kept this work
in his conducting repertoire for several
years after its première then
totally discarded it. Perhaps it was
this disparity of inspiration which
finally led him to let the work slip
into obscurity.
It’s a mystery why
the Karelia Overture, whose middle
section contains a statement of the
theme of the Intermezzo (1st
movement) from the better known Karelia
Suite, has never caught on with
the public or concert promoters. It’s
a jaunty little thing which should be
better known but perhaps its neglect
is due to its generally light-hearted
nature and the fact that it doesn’t
sound particularly Sibelian.
The two Serenades are
beautiful miniatures, thoughtful and
carefully wrought, gratifying to play
and, due to their brevity, they leave
you wanting more.
At the end of the 19th
century Finland was under Russian domination
and in 1899 the Tsar issued the February
Manifesto which limited Finnish autonomy.
Thus came about the Press Celebrations,
ostensibly to raise money for journalists’
pensions. In reality the proceeds were
intended for the preservation of the
freedom of the Finnish press which was
seen to be at risk from the Russian
presence in Finland and its policies.
For the Celebrations, Sibelius wrote
a short overture and music to accompany
six tableaux: the 1st Suite
of Scènes historiques derives
from this music. It isn’t important
which scene became which piece as all
three movements are self-contained due
to Sibelius having reworking the music
in 1911. If you want to see how Sibelius
changed his original tableaux into the
Scènes historiques, there’s
complete recordings of the Press Celebrations
music (coupled with other vocal works)
conducted by Osmo Vänskä (BIS-CD-1115)
or conducted by Tuomas Ollila-Hannikainen
(coupled with the original
Karelia music) (Ondine ODE
913-2). The final tableaux of the Press
Celebrations music was entitled Finland
Wakes! Sibelius immediately reworked
this as Finlandia, which ends
this collection.
Formed in 2005, the
Gothenburg-Aarhus Philharmonic is a
student ensemble, consisting of members
of the Music Academies in Göteborg,
Sweden and Aarhus, Denmark. It’s a well-disciplined
group and these performances are very
well played. They’re also rather dull:
it was only a dogged sense of duty which
made me sit through the whole CD – twice.
The performances never take off and
leap out of the speakers to grab you.
The fault must lie firmly with the conductor
Douglas Bostock for his uninspiring
leadership. Two examples will suffice,
I think, to show this approach. The
opening section of The Wood Nymph
is the kind of galloping music we
know from the Lemminkäinen Suite,
but the headlong rush, the sense of
urgency, is missing. Likewise, Finlandia.
I know it’s a hackneyed work these days
but the fast music should still be thrilling
and the coda full and broad. This is
leaden-footed and, strangely, unenthusiastic.
The recorded sound is also rather dull.
There are finer performances
of all the works recorded here – many
of them currently available.
Although this disk
boasts The Wood Nymph to be a
première recording of the new
edition prepared by the publisher Breitkopf
and Härtel, you’ll find a much
better performance - of the earlier
version - by the Lahti Symphony Orchestra,
conducted by Osmo Vänskä.
That performance is to be had on BIS-CD-1900/02
– part of a five CD set of various versions
of Sibelius’s tone poems – or coupled
with the original monodrama on which
the orchestral work is based, A Lonely
Ski-Trail (both with Lasse Pöysti
as narrator) and Swanwhite, op.54
on BIS-CD-815.
The violin Serenades
are best served by the much missed Ralph
Holmes with the Berlin Radio Symphony
Orchestra, conducted by Vernon Handley,
coupled with the Two Pieces:
Laetare anima mea (Cantique)
and Ab imo pectore (Devotion),
op.77 and the six Humoresques, opp.87
and 89 on a much sought after (long
deleted but well worth the search) LP,
namely Schwann VMS 1604 - (recorded
in 1980). If you can’t wait until you
find Holmes’s disc, try the same coupling,
with the addition of the Overture in
E major and Ballet Scene, by Dong-Suk
Kang with the Göteborgs Symfoniker
conducted by Neeme Järvi on BIS
(BIS-CD-472).
I favour Alexander
Gibson and the Scottish National Orchestra
- as it was when this disk was recorded
- in the Scènes historiques
– an excellent example of how fine a
Sibelius conductor Gibson was. This
is a good selection of Sibelius, comprising
both suites of Scènes historiques,
with Rakastava and the Valse
Lyrique, op.96 on Chandos CHAN 6591.
Anthony Collins’s Decca
recordings, made in the 1950s with the
London Symphony Orchestra, of Sibelius’s
symphonies are still, and quite justly,
highly prized. At the same time he recorded
a handful of smaller works, the Karelia
Overture included. This performance
is well worth having. It is available
as part of a 4 CD set of his complete
Sibelius recordings (Beulah 14PD8).
You can also track it down on the inexpensive
Decca Eloquence 442 9493 alongside the
last three symphonies and various tone
poems.
I wish I could welcome
this ClassicO CD for, as I wrote at
the beginning, this is an interesting
disc, spotlighting unknown works by
a great master, but this music needs
a firmer hand in control.
Bob Briggs
for details
Sakari Tapponen (violin) 
