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See Terms & Conditions for p&p rates. | |  | Sibelius: Symphonies Nos. 5 & 6
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| |  | Kajanus Conducts Sibelius, Vol. 3
Mark Obert-Thorn, producer and audio restoration engineer This is the last of three volumes containing the complete Sibelius recordings conducted by Robert Kajanus in performances which carry the composer’s imprimatur. Sibelius said of Kajanus that “there are none who have gone deeper and given [my symphonies] more feeling and beauty”. The volatility and extended climaxes of Symphony No. 3 are perfectly shaped. Symphony No. 5 also takes flight majestically, not least in the ‘swan theme’ of the finale. |
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| |  | Sibelius: Symphonies Nos. 2 & 5
BIS present a new recording of Jean Sibelius’s Symphonies 2 and 5 from the Minnesota Orchestra and their Finnish conductor Osmo Vänskä. Beginning in the early 1990s, seminal recordings with Vänskä and the Lahti Symphony Orchestra of tone poems and the seven symphonies stood at the forefront of a new interpretative approach to the composer’s music. Vänskä’s recordings of Sibelius over the past 20 years form the backbone of the label’s newly completed Sibelius Edition. This disc with the Minnesota Orchestra follows an acclaimed cycle of Beethoven’s symphonies, and most recently a recording of Bruckner’s Fourth (‘Romantic’) Symphony. The Sibelius expert Robert Layton presents the Second Symphony as ‘the symphony by which many music lovers find their way to Sibelius’, and quotes the composer in a comment about symphonic form: ‘a river with innumerable tributaries feeding it before it broadens majestically and flows into the sea’. “[the Minnesota's] sound is huge and polished with rich strings, flaring brass and mellow winds, clearly recorded in first-rate SACD surround sound...[the Fifth] is fairly speedy, but well-paced and imaginatively phrased. The first movement's hollowed-out string passages beneath upfront woodwind make for typically atmospheric Vanska, while the concluding accelerations are obvious but impressive.” BBC Music Magazine, April 2012 **** “The sheer polish of the Minnesotans is a source of pleasure, but it was the voyage-of-discovery energy and temperament that made Vänskä’s work in Lahti so distinctive, defining a new age of Sibelius interpretation. Vänskä is now older: his Sibelius has become smoother and, yes, more conventional.” Financial Times, 18th February 2012 *** “So how do Nos 2 & 5 compare with their Lahti equivalents? They are every bit as compelling and intelligently realised...Vanska handles the opening movement's compound structure even better than before and the finale is just right, with irresistable forward momentum...Thore Brinkmann's superb sound reproduces with exceptional clarity every nuance of a finely balanced orchestral picture” Gramophone Magazine, April 2012 “Under Vänskä's leadership, the Minnesota Orchestra has moved into the top echelon of US bands. But these symphonies need a leaner, less self-regarding sound, while Vänskä's performances seem to have broadened and coarsened, too. There are some striking passages” The Guardian, 22nd March 2012 *** | | | (also available to download from $10.50) | In stock - usually despatched within 1 working day. |
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| |  | Sibelius: Symphonies Nos. 2 & 5
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| |  | Jukka-Pekka Saraste conducts Sibelius & LutosławskiRecorded live at Southbank Centre’s Royal Festival Hall, London, on 20 February 2008 (Lutosławski) and 15 October 2008 (Sibelius)
At first glance, Sibelius and Lutosławski may seem odd bedfellows on disc, but not in this instance. This disc couples the two works for which these composers are probably best remembered. Sibelius’ Symphony No.5 and Lutosławski’s Concerto for Orchestra. Interestingly, Lutosławski, in admiration of Sibelius, travelled to Finland in May 1955 to meet the venerable composer at his own Sibelius Festival. ‘Sibelius’s music is characterised by constant switches of tempo but Saraste, conducting from memory, negotiated the gear changes with idiomatic empathy, steering his players confidently through the turbulent shoals of the start of the finale to the culminating oceanic currents.’ Barry Millington, Evening Standard, 16 October 2008. Since 2010 Jukka-Pekka Saraste has been Chief Conductor of the WDR Symphony Orchestra Cologne. He has also been Music Director of the Oslo Philharmonic since 2006. His discography includes the complete symphonies of Sibelius and Nielsen with the Finnish Radio Orchestra, as well as works by Bartók, Dutilleux, Mussorgsky and Prokofiev with the Toronto Symphony Orchestra. His most recent recordings are Mahler Symphony No. 6 and DVD releases of Sibelius Symphonies Nos. 1 and 5 with the Oslo Philharmonic, as well as Mahler Symphony No. 9 with the WDR Symphony Orchestra. “This has to be one of the best recordings around of Sibelius's Fifth. And Lutoslawki's Concerto can never have been more brilliantly played.” Classic FM Magazine, December 2011 **** “Pohjola’s Daughter is very well served here. Jukka-Pekka Saraste’s 2008 RFH performance is electric – fast and exciting where it needs to be, with the darkest, most sinister of openings...Lutosławski’s Concerto for Orchestra makes an unusual coupling. Saraste’s reading is sleazier, grimier than I’ve heard it, moving with a menacing swagger.” The Arts Desk, 19th November 2011 “Both Sibelius works come across very strongly here...Saraste sees these works whole. Always the right thing seems to happen at the right time. The sense of growth from a simple but potent musical seed in the Symphony is as fine as I've ever experienced it...The Lutoslawski too is full of good things and again it builds thrillingly towards the end.” BBC Music Magazine, February 2012 ***** “It is not just concert attendees who will be pleased to have this spectacularly deft and rigorous account of Lutoslawski's Concerto for Orchestra on disc...Saraste is in his element here, clarifying the composer's bejewelled textural mosaics while driving forwards and generally inspiring the players to give of their very best.” Gramophone Magazine, December 2011 | | | (also available to download from $10.50) | In stock - usually despatched within 1 working day. |
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| |  | Sibelius: Symphonies Nos. 4-7 & Tapiola
Sibelius: | Symphony No. 4 in A minor, Op. 63 Berliner Philharmoniker, Herbert von Karajan Symphony No. 5 in E flat major, Op. 82 City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, Sir Simon Rattle Symphony No. 6 in D minor, Op. 104 Berliner Philharmoniker, Herbert von Karajan Symphony No. 7 in C major, Op. 105 Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra, Paavo Berglund Tapiola, Op. 112 Berliner Philharmoniker, Herbert von Karajan |
Jean Sibelius (1865-1958) was one of the greatest symphonists of the 20th century and his music is as popular today as it was when he died over 50 years ago. This set contains the final four of Sibelius's seven symphonies, written between the years 1911 and 1924. Although he lived for almost another 30 years Sibelius wrote nothing after 1929. It is reputed that he wrote an Eighth Symphony but this is believed to have been destroyed by the composer. “A mixed Sibelius bag from Karajan: a portentous No. 4, a graceful and purposeful No. 6, and Tapiola of elemental power. Rattle conducts a vividly dramatic No. 5, Berglund a fine, no-nonsense No. 7.” BBC Music Magazine, May 2011 **** | | | In stock - usually despatched within 1 working day. |
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| |  | Sibelius: Symphonies Nos. 5 & 6
“Mature wisdom and beautiful playing from the LSO” The Times, 10th May 2013 | | | In stock - usually despatched within 1 working day. |
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| |  | Sibelius - Symphonies 1, 2, 3 & 5
Jean Sibelius was born in 1865 as Julius Christian but adopted the French equivalent and is now always known as such. He soon established himself as Finland’s greatest composer and the most powerful symphonist to have come from Scandinavia and the countries surrounding the Baltic Sea. The first work to be composed in this collection recorded by Mariss Jansons and the Oslo Philharmonic Orchestra is arguably his most famous: Finlandia, written in 1899, which shows his strong belief in national self-determination for his homeland and against Russian rule. Works flowed quickly as by 1902 he had already completed his Second Symphony (both this and his First are in this set). His Valse Triste became very popular and throughout the world and tended temporarily to mask his other achievements, The Third Symphony tended to be overlooked as it was less romantic, more classical in form and was also distinct from the more brooding later symphonies; now it is becoming more performed and appreciated as part of the great canon. Of the later Symphonies the Fifth is certainly the most popular, the dark gloom of the Fourth (no doubt due to the suspected throat cancer) had been replaced by brightness with melodies that truly sing. The gradual accelerando in the third movement is breathtaking in its excitement ending in a titanic coda where themes from the first and third movements are recalled, the final bars of loud staccato chords are both spell-binding in their originality and brilliant in their effect. The last work from the set to be composed, Andante Festivo, was written in 1922 for string quartet just before the Sixth Symphony, he later expanded it for string orchestra. | | | In stock - usually despatched within 1 working day. |
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| |  | Beethoven & Sibelius - Gould & von Karajan
More than 50 years ago, in May 1957 in Berlin, Glenn Gould and Herbert von Karajan had their first encounter, when Gould performed in a concert of Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 3 in C minor and Sibelius’s Symphony No. 5 in E flat with the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra. Recently re-mastered from the original tapes, this concert recording is now available on CD for the first time. This enhanced CD also contains a PDF-format document reproducing the original programme from this legendary concert. The album is released to mark Karajan’s 100th anniversary, and the 75th anniversary of Gould’s birth, and the 25th anniversary of his death. “…Glenn Gould and Herbert von Karajan gave six concerts between May 1957 and September 1959 featuring Beethoven's C minor Concerto… This… Berlin performance is notable for the sense it brings of the work's incipient lyric beauty. At Karajan's more flowing tempo, Gould's account of the Largo has an airier, more improvisatory feel.” Gramophone Magazine, November 2008 | | | In stock - usually despatched within 1 working day. |
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| |  | Sibelius - Symphonies Nos. 2 & 5
This record brings together, for the first time, undoubtedly
inspired performances of two Sibelius symphonies – the
Second and the Fifth – conducted by Barbirolli, the first a
studio recording from 1962, the second a live BBC Henry
Wood Promenade Concert from 1968. “Barbirolli's October 1962 account of the Second Symphony with the RPO… finds Sir John at his inspirational best in a reading which marries outsize but never wilful temperament to edge-of-seat spontaneity and keen poetic instinct. The coupling is a Fifth Symphony with Barbirolli's beloved Hallé from the 1968 Proms which, in strength of personality and palpable depth of feeling, has a lot going for it.” Gramophone Magazine, September 2008 “In the pantheon of essential Sibelius recordings, Barbirolli's October 1962 account of the Second Symphony with the RPO deservedly occupies a place of honour. Recorded at Walthamstow for Reader's Digest with Charles Gerhardt producing and Decca's legendary Kenneth Wilkinson as balance engineer, it finds Sir John at his inspirational best in a reading which marries outsize but never wilful temperament to edge-of-seat spontaneity and keen poetic instinct. The experience is very much akin to attending a live concert of one's dreams.
The deceptively tricky slow movement is particularly remarkable for its daring flexibility of pulse and line yet never threatens to run aground, while the stirring finale (its big string tune so fervently sung both times round) will have you on your feet long before the end. If you haven't yet made this famous performance's acquaintance, don't hesitate for an instant.
The coupling is a Fifth Symphony with Barbirolli's beloved Hallé from the 1968 Proms which, in strength of personality and palpable depth of feeling, has a lot going for it. As on this team's 1966 EMI recording, the opening pages have exactly the right sense of awe-struck wonder and pregnant growth, and in the second movement it's a joy to hear Sibelius's delicious pizzicato writing “speak” with such clarity and eloquence. The first half of the finale has vitality and atmosphere in abundance, but you might crave a greater nobility of utterance in the towering epilogue. A commendably unbronchial audience roars its approval. Despite any minor quibbles, JB's many fans should be well pleased that Testament has salvaged such a typically vibrant display from the BBC vaults.” Gramophone Classical Music Guide, 2010 “Two of the finest Sibelius perofrmances that Sir John ever recorded.” Penguin Guide, 2011 edition | | | In stock - usually despatched within 1 working day. |
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