Sibelius: Symphonies Nos. 1 & 4 [Import]

Jean Sibelius (Composer), Osmo Vänskä (Conductor), Lahti Symphony Orchestra (Orchestra) | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Orchestra: Lahti Symphony Orchestra
• Conductor: Osmo Vänskä
• Composer: Jean Sibelius
• Audio CD (October 1, 1996)
• Number of Discs: 1
• Format: Import
• Label: Bis
• ASIN: B0000016PH
• Also Available in: MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #347,329 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

This Sibelius cycle from one of the hometown teams has a lot going for it and received a very positive critical response. Osmo Vänskä's First Symphony is probably the fastest in the history of the piece, and very exciting too. The Fourth, on the other hand, is without a doubt one of the slowest, but it's also one of the most carefully detailed and shaped. Given the fact that the music is almost uniformly bleak and creepy, the result is at times quite terrifying. The Lahti Symphony Orchestra plays this music as if they have something to prove, and they certainly succeed. This is totally committed, highly accomplished playing. Demonstration-quality sound, too. --David Hurwitz

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

14 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) review May 4th 2002, May 5, 2002

By 

MR quantification addict (Brighton, UK) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Sibelius: Symphonies Nos. 1 & 4 (Audio CD)

A review of recordings of Sibelius' 4th symphony, on CD masters on the BBC on Saturday May 4th, brought this recording out top (of about 10-15 that were considered). The reviewer considered the depths of loneliness and despair reached were remarkable!. More info on the BBC website.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars The bleak masterpiece Fourth paired with the immature but nonetheless promising start of the cycle, June 9, 2009

By 

Christopher Culver - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Sibelius: Symphonies Nos. 1 & 4 (Audio CD)

This BIS disc formed part of the label's Sibelius symphony cycle featuring the Lahti Symphony Orchestra and conductor Osmo Vanska.

The First (1898) is clearly an immature work, heavily indebted to Beethoven. Nonetheless, it is also one of the more auspicious symphonic debuts of any composer. From the start Sibelius introduces his unique style of music, difficult to define, but instantly recognizable, that has led generations of listeners to believe it tells of Man against the elements in the North. I don't listen to the First much, but by the time Sibelius wrote the Fourth (1911) he had reached full maturity as a symphonic composer and as a reverend contributor to modernism. It is one of the bleakest symphonies ever penned, and later composers in the "Nordic style" such as Allan Pettersson found immense inspiration from its grim tone and sparse writing. Two movements of austere low strings move at glacial speeds, their harmonies unable to find any sort of resolution because of an all-dominating tritone. Then the third movement, marked "Il tempo largo" (as if the first two weren't too!) changes the mood so slowly that the reversal of light and darkness is almost imperceptible until confirmed by a luminous glockenspiel. By the time you reach the end of the Fourth, you feel like you've just finished an arduous climb up a mountaintop, the fatigue of listening exertion overcome by joy at the vista revealed.

I think the Vanska and Lahti SO cycle is the best around, featuring incredible musicianship and excellent sound quality. Vanska follows Sibelius' metronome markings, which provides something at least approaching a definitive performance. I think many Sibelius fans will want to get the entire cycle, and so the most economical way to hear these two symphonies is on the BIS Complete Sibelius Symphonies box.

3 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A five-star Fourth, but the Lahti orchestra is no prize, June 17, 2011

By 

Santa Fe Listener (Santa Fe, NM USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Sibelius: Symphonies Nos. 1 & 4 (Audio CD)

All of the Sibelius symphonies that BIS recorded with Vanska suffer from the same obstacle to giving them a high recommendation. The Lahti Symphony Orchestra -- which for some unfathomable reason is praised for its playing by the unreliable David Hurwitz -- sounds thin and ordinary, as you'd expect a provincial Finnish orchestra to sound. I am mystified why every single amazon review that I've read, as well as the Gramophone, dresses mutton as lamb. The Sibelius first begins with a long clarinet solo, and there's no comparison between the good-enough playing of the Lahti clarinetist and the first chairs of Berlin, Vienna, New York -- substitute any notable ensemble that has recorded the work.

What makes this a defect that isn't crippling is Vanska himself, who has risen to be our leading Sibelius conductor. He is much better supported in concert with his Minnesota Orch., but on this CD one can't miss the freshness and authority of his interpretations. Noting sounds rote or mechanical. There are original things to be heard in the very familiar First that captured my attention. The overall approach is fairly brisk -- at 33 min., Vanska is 2 min. faster than the first alternative I pulled off the shelf, Leonard Bernstein with the NY Phil. That recording is a great one in every respect, so there's no compelling reason to choose Vanska unless you simply want to hear his animated way with the score or happen to like Sibelius slimmed down. There's a kind of reckless abandon in the Scherzo that will either thrill you or seem too rushed. the finale, however, is taken at a measured pace, and it's here, where Sibelius reaches for grandeur, that I find it hard to do without a great orchestra.

The Fourth is Sibelius's most enigmatic symphony, and although it may sound bleak to some (we can set aside Hurwitz's idiotic term "creepy"), devotees of the work hear a deep mysticism. Unlike the composer's opular symphonies, the Fourth has no melodies or conventional development; it takes to the extreme his ability to write like no one else. In that regard, the impenetrability of this work reminds me of Debussy's 'Jeux,' which also sounds like the essence of its composer while being closed off to ordinary listeners. Vanska's very measured pacing has its plus and minus. The minus is that we lose the sumptuous sound that a Karajan or Bernstein commands, and more critically, the themes turn into long, drawn-out events in sound rather than discernible mottoes. The big plus is anska's evocation of the mystery and indescribable feelings inspired by Nature worship.

In this case I'd say that the plus far outweighs the minus. This is a Sibelius fourth to lose yourself in; being unable to follow the musical argument is of little concern. The closest to a conventional movement is the Scherzo, which Vanska takes nimbly and fast enough to do justice to the marking of Allegro molto vivace. At 14 min. the slow movement, marked Largo, has been lengthened so much that themes rise from silence and fall back again in a way that suggests timelessness or deepest reflection. As in the first movement, the result is very affecting. The finale is neither fast nor slow compared to the competition, and although Vanska gives it a sharp characterization, it was here that I most missed the luxury of a great orchestra.

In reviewing any of Vanska's Sibelius cycle, I can't diminish the lack of a better orchestra, but at the same time I recognize how superbly Vanska rises above that limitation. It's a balancing act, with the fourth coming out best.