MusicWeb International One of the most grown-up review sites around 2024
60,000 reviews
... and still writing ...

Search MusicWeb Here Acte Prealable Polish CDs
 

Presto Music CD retailer
 
Founder: Len Mullenger                                    Editor in Chief:John Quinn             


CD REVIEW

Some items
to consider

new MWI
Current reviews

old MWI
pre-2023 reviews

paid for
advertisements

Acte Prealable Polish recordings

Forgotten Recordings
Forgotten Recordings
All Forgotten Records Reviews

TROUBADISC
Troubadisc Weinberg- TROCD01450

All Troubadisc reviews


FOGHORN Classics

Alexandra-Quartet
Brahms String Quartets

All Foghorn Reviews


All HDTT reviews


Songs to Harp from
the Old and New World


all Nimbus reviews



all tudor reviews


Follow us on Twitter


Editorial Board
MusicWeb International
Founding Editor
   
Rob Barnett
Editor in Chief
John Quinn
Contributing Editor
Ralph Moore
Webmaster
   David Barker
Postmaster
Jonathan Woolf
MusicWeb Founder
   Len Mullenger

Purchase from Buywell.com

 

Jean SIBELIUS (1865-1957)
CD 1 [59:16]
Symphony No. 2 in D major, Op. 43 [42:31]
Tapiola, Op. 112 [16:23]
CD 2 [55:30]
Jean SIBELIUS (1865-1957)
Symphony No. 4 in A minor. Op. 63 [35:37]
Sergei RACHMANINOV (1873-1943)
The Isle of the Dead, Op. 29 * [19:33]
L’Orchestre de la Suisse Romande/Ernest Ansermet
Paris Conservatoire Orchestra/Ernest Ansermet (Rachmaninov)
rec. Victoria Hall, Geneva, Switzerland, October 1963 (Symphony No. 2), November 1963 (Symphony No. 4, Tapiola); La Maison de la Mutualité, Paris, France, September 1954 (Rachmaninov). * MONO. ADD
DECCA ELOQUENCE 480 0044 [59:16 + 55:30]
Experience Classicsonline


 

With a warhorse like Sibelius’s Second Symphony a new recording struggles to make an impact. We can be sure of classic accounts of which Beecham's superheated RFH live affair from the 1950s ranks high. So does Barbirolli's volcanic 1960s effort with the RPO on Chesky and latterly from Testament. This one from Ansermet is in the upper phalanx. It is recorded with gasping vividness which is typical of vintage Decca. The work’s extensive pizzicato undergrowth is rendered with ear-tickling impact. Woodwind, sometimes reedy, reach out and touch the listener. In the finale there's no mistaking the coursing adrenaline. Ansermet keeps pressing forward. OK so there is hint of rawness in the sound but it is not out of place and is only to be expected from a recording that has chalked up more than four decades.  Tapiola is comparably urgent and is grippingly recorded although in Paris. It is not quite up there with Van Beinum - also on Eloquence - but certainly it is deeply impressive. This is no sleepy Tapiola. Ansermet's Sibelius Fourth Symphony has already been praised in several quarters  and rightly so. Ansermet holds the tension of this work on the tautest reins throughout. The admonitory brass are steely black and agreeably coarse of tone. The tubular bells resound with clarity. Special attention is paid to articulation and dynamic and although I have heard more impetuous string solos in the finale this is a very strongly shaped account. The strength of these Sibelius recordings is all the more to be wondered at given that the sessions took place during the global winter that suffocated Sibelius's music within the decade after his death in 1957.

All these recordings are analogue but the Rachmaninov Isle of the Dead is from ten years before the Sibelius sessions. The silky steel of the violins at 4:48 is evidence of this as is the higher hiss level - hardly noticeable at all in the Sibelius tracks. This work too is pressed forward at an unaccustomed pace - if still fitting and not rushed. The recording is atmospheric and captures the groaning ominous brass with something more intense than fidelity.

Surprisingly good Sibelius - in fact not to be missed by dedicated Sibelians. The Rachmaninov benefits from something close to impatience. If you have ever been irritated by the piece this might well be for you. Urgent it may be but Ansermet does the piece no harm at all and it emerges the stronger for having been summonsed from the depths with such impetuosity and even anger. It is to Ansermet's credit that he draws playing of such fervour from the Paris Conservatoire Orchestra.

Cyrus Meher-Homji knows how to pick them!

 

Rob Barnett

 

 

 


Advertising on
Musicweb


Donate and keep us afloat

 

New Releases

Naxos Classical
All Naxos reviews

Hyperion recordings
All Hyperion reviews

Foghorn recordings
All Foghorn reviews

Troubadisc recordings
All Troubadisc reviews



all Bridge reviews


all cpo reviews

Divine Art recordings
Click to see New Releases
Get 10% off using code musicweb10
All Divine Art reviews


All Eloquence reviews

Lyrita recordings
All Lyrita Reviews

 

Wyastone New Releases
Obtain 10% discount

Subscribe to our free weekly review listing

 

 


EXPLORE MUSICWEB INTERNATIONAL

Making a Donation to MusicWeb

Writing CD reviews for MWI

About MWI
Who we are, where we have come from and how we do it.

Site Map

How to find a review

How to find articles on MusicWeb
Listed in date order

Review Indexes
   By Label
      Select a label and all reviews are listed in Catalogue order
   By Masterwork
            Links from composer names (eg Sibelius) are to resource pages with links to the review indexes for the individual works as well as other resources.

Themed Review pages

Jazz reviews

 

Discographies
   Composer
      Composer surveys
   National
      Unique to MusicWeb -
a comprehensive listing of all LP and CD recordings of given works
.
Prepared by Michael Herman

The Collector’s Guide to Gramophone Company Record Labels 1898 - 1925
Howard Friedman

Book Reviews

Complete Books
We have a number of out of print complete books on-line

Interviews
With Composers, Conductors, Singers, Instumentalists and others
Includes those on the Seen and Heard site

Nostalgia

Nostalgia CD reviews

Records Of The Year
Each reviewer is given the opportunity to select the best of the releases

Monthly Best Buys
Recordings of the Month and Bargains of the Month

Comment
Arthur Butterworth Writes

An occasional column

Phil Scowcroft's Garlands
British Light Music articles

Classical blogs
A listing of Classical Music Blogs external to MusicWeb International

Reviewers Logs
What they have been listening to for pleasure

Announcements

 

Community
Bulletin Board

Give your opinions or seek answers

Reviewers
Past and present

Helpers invited!

Resources
How Did I Miss That?

Currently suspended but there are a lot there with sound clips


Composer Resources

British Composers

British Light Music Composers

Other composers

Film Music (Archive)
Film Music on the Web (Closed in December 2006)

Programme Notes
For concert organizers

External sites
British Music Society
The BBC Proms
Orchestra Sites
Recording Companies & Retailers
Online Music
Agents & Marketing
Publishers
Other links
Newsgroups
Web News sites etc

PotPourri
A pot-pourri of articles

MW Listening Room
MW Office

Advice to Windows Vista users  
Questionnaire    
Site History  
What they say about us
What we say about us!
Where to get help on the Internet
CD orders By Special Request
Graphics archive
Currency Converter
Dictionary
Magazines
Newsfeed  
Web Ring
Translation Service

Rules for potential reviewers :-)
Do Not Go Here!
April Fools




Return to Review Index

Untitled Document


Reviews from previous months
Join the mailing list and receive a hyperlinked weekly update on the discs reviewed. details
We welcome feedback on our reviews. Please use the Bulletin Board
Please paste in the first line of your comments the URL of the review to which you refer.