Sibelius: Symphony No. 1 in E minor, Op. 39

Symphonies Nos. 1 & 4 are poles apart in their musical style and make a highly interesting pairing for this new release. Symphony No. 1 is rooted in the symphonic tradition and has a particular tunefulness reminiscent of Tchaikovsky, whereas Symphony No. 4 is highly original and introverted, often being seen as modern and ‘cubist’ by listeners in the 1890s.

The Minnesota Orchestra and its music director Osmo Vänskä were highly praised for their previous release of Symphonies Nos. 2 & 5 (BISSACD1986), being called ‘a fine start to what may be the benchmark cycle for the 21st century’ by Gramophone, and nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Orchestral Performance.

Vänskä has really enhanced the quality of the Minnesota Orchestra since he took the position of musical director in 2003. He has since had his tenure extended many times and continues to carve an international reputation for the ensemble.

This release has advertising planned in Gramophone magazine as part of a ‘new orchestral features on BIS’.

1930 and 1932 studio recordings

Jean Sibelius wrote that “there are none who have gone deeper and given [my symphonies] more feeling and beauty than Robert Kajanus”. The nobility and affection in this première recording of the First Symphony makes it uniquely cherished amongst Sibelius aficionados. Pohjola’s Daughter is a supreme masterpiece, filled with brooding atmosphere and tension, and Tapiola is a graphic evocation of destructive climate and landscape. This is the first of three volumes containing Robert Kajanus’s complete Sibelius recordings.

Mark Obert-Thorn, producer and audio restoration engineer

Talented young Finnish-born Pietari Inkinen conducts the internationally acclaimed New Zealand Symphony Orchestra in poetic and sweeping performances of his compatriot’s Symphonies Nos. 1 and 3.

This is the first volume in a new Naxos series.

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.

Sir Colin Davis' award-winning cycle of Sibelius's symphonies reaches its conclusion with the release of Symphonies Nos 1 & 4. Sibelius was still heavily influenced by Tchaikovsky when he composed his First Symphony although there are clear signs of him developing his own highly individual style. The Fourth Symphony, completed eleven years later consitutes a dark heart at the centre of his symphonic output, written shortly after he underwent treatment for cancer.

CONCERT REVIEWS:

"What makes Davis's Sibelius compelling is that he manages to have it both ways. He gives these fine players the encouragement to turn individual passages into moments of spineingling magic …But he never loses sight of the bigger objective,which is to pull together, bit by bit,the seemingly disparate themes …I doubt whether I shall ever hear an orchestra and conductor achieve a closer rapport in Sibelius" The Times

"Davis made it as taut and purposeful as the later symphonies, and as structurally cogent. It was certainly a vivid account,but Davis made details tell as much as the symphony's big tragic statements,and drew the thematic threads of the finale together with massive assurance” The Guardian