Customer Reviews

Sibelius: Scenes Historiques I & II / King Christian Ii

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Naxos has produced a fair share of Sibelius recordings over the years, some of them very good to excellent (Complete Piano Works, Lemminkainen Legends, Kullervo), some of them not so great. (I always thought that Naxos's Sibelius symphony cycle with Petri Sakari and the Iceland Symphony Orchestra was always a bit overrated.) This current release of some of Sibelius's lighter orchestral fare is, thankfully, worthy of being counted among the "excellent."

Sibelius's SCENES HISTORIQUES and KING CHRISTIAN II SUITE have been recoded many times over the years, but I believe this is the first time in a long time that these works have gotten a major new release.

The New Zealand Symphony Orchestra is one of Naxos's "house bands" and they play to invigorating effect under their new (Finnish) conductor, the young Pietari Inkinen. Inkinen coaxes his orchestra to perform these works exactly as they should be heard...with fresh energy and enthusiasm all the while keeping the inherent lightness of the scores intact.

Naxos's sonics are, as usual, stupendous. The New Zealand SO sounds natural and crystal-clear.

This has, no doubt, become my favorite recording of these pieces and I shall return to it often. No Sibelian should be without this exciting recording.

Some of Sibelius' most unknown works are those that the composer wrote throughout his career - his music for theater productions. This interesting recording from the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra under the baton of Pietari Inkinen offers a pair of these works and in many ways makes us appreciate this 'lesser Sibelius'. The more successful of the two is the King Christian Suite, Opus 27 - music for the play by Adolf Paul produced in 1898. The story of the play is based on the 16th century king whose reign was beset by political and emotional mistakes - a real soap opera of a story. But for this play Sibelius provided some rather wonderful lilting melodies, and while the orchestration is nowhere near the quality of his symphonies, the parts of the suite are immensely listenable, and the music hold ideas and forms that will appear in later works. A good addition to the library! Grady Harp, March 10