Sibelius: Spring Song, Op. 16

The present recordings of The Swan of Tuonela, Lemminkäinen's Return and Finlandia are previously unreleased. Stereo versions of the original 5.0 surround sound recordings of the Karelia Suite, The Wood-Nymph, Spring Song, Valse triste and Scene with Cranes have appeared in the BIS Sibelius Complete Edition. For inclusion on this hybrid SACD they have been remixed.

Regularly described by reviewers as 'the pre-eminent Sibelius interpreters of our day' (American Record Guide) and 'the Sibelius orchestra and conductor of the moment' (International Record Review), Osmo Vänskä and the Lahti Symphony Orchestra have become synonymous with idiomatic, pioneering and authoritative interpretations of the music of Jean Sibelius. In fact the team's very first Sibelius recording, in 1991, caused a sensation: juxtaposing the final version of the composer's famous violin concerto with the original version - never before recorded - made for a disc that was of eminent interest to the world of classical music, as witness the Gramophone Award that it received upon its release. But the recording, with soloist Leonidas Kavakos, was also praised for its artistic quality, and is still, almost twenty years later, considered a classic account of the work. The Lahti / Vänskä team went on to record the well-known Sibelius works - the seven symphonies, the tone poems, Kullervo - as well as a large amount of music that had hitherto been all but ignored. The fruits of their long involvement with the composer now form the orchestral back-bone of the ongoing Sibelius Edition on BIS, and have been of great interest to Sibelius specialists and music-lovers alike. The present programme unashamedly glories in some of the composer's most popular pieces, all in the versions familiar to concert audiences around the world. Recorded in 5.0 surround sound during sessions in 2006 and 2007, the performances constitute a sonic spectacular - and some of the last Sibelius recordings by a legendary team.

Next to his famous symphonies the great Finnish composer Jean Sibelius composed a great number of symphonic poems (ie one-movement symphonic works), often with a programmatic content, depicting Finnish sagas or fairy tales: Finlandia, The Swan of Tuonela, En Saga and many others.

A complete recording of these immensely enjoyable and popular works by the great Russian conductor Vassily Sinaisky and the Moscow State Symphonic Orchestra in its full glory.

Nowhere in music are the landscape, myths, legends and politics of a composer’s country so inextricably hard-wired into his sound world as in the music of Jean Sibelius (1865-1957). The vast pine forests, lakes and rivers of Finland, the midnight sun, the endless winter nights, the penetrating cold, and the brief warm summers combine, along with the epic national poem The Kalevala to provide a rich vein for Sibelius to exploit in his unique Symphonic Poems and his seven symphonies.

From the early En Saga of 1891, via Finlandia to the vast, shattering experience of Tapiola of 1926 his unique musical voice became the voice of the new Finnish nation emerging from centuries of domination by Sweden and Russia. This 3CD set contains all the symphonic poems, including The Four Legends (The Swan of Tuonela is the second of these), the famous Finlandia, and the masterful Pohjola’s Daughter, the mysterious Oceanides and Luonnotar, and the final last symphonic work Tapiola. After completing this work, Sibelius lived another 31 years in musical silence, completing and destroying his 8th Symphony.

Recordings made in 1991

Vassily Sinaisky’s international career was launched in 1973 when he won the Gold Medal at the prestigious Karajan Competition in Berlin. His early work with Kirill Kondrashin at the Moscow Philharmonic and with Ilya Musin at the Leningrad Conservatoire provided him with an incomparable grounding. Soon after his success at the Karajan Competition, Sinaisky was appointed Chief Conductor of the Latvian National Symphony Orchestra, a post he held from 1976 to 1987. He then became Music Director and Principal Conductor of the Moscow Philharmonic, leading numerous high-profile projects with the Orchestra both in Russia and on tour around the world. - On 21 September 2010 Vassily Sinaisky was formally announced as the new Music Director of the Bolshoi Theatre, Moscow.