Sibelius: The Bard, Op. 64

Among the many Sibelius recordings in existence, those that have certainly been overlooked are the Okko Kamu readings of the Four Legends, Karelia Suite and two of the tone poems – The Bard and En Saga. Previously issued on a French ‘Double’ disc, they make their first significant appearance, coupled with the much-praised Sibelius readings of Eugen Jochum previously issued in DG’s ‘Sprache der Welt’ series.

To many, the Lahti Symphony Orchestra has become synonymous with excellence in Sibelius repertoire. Its numerous recordings with the previous chief conductor Osmo Vänskä have received countless distinctions and awards. On the present disc the orchestra is conducted by Okko Kamu, Vänskä's successor as chief conductor.

Here three other works by Sibelius make up the programme, which opens with music for Shakespeare's play The Tempest, for which the composer in 1925 wrote the most ambitious of his several theatre scores.

In 1926, a year after The Tempest, Sibelius again turned to the realm of magic in his masterful evocation of the forest, the symphonic poem Tapiola. The title can be translated as ‘the domain of Tapio’, god of the forest in Finnish mythology. The work has been regarded as one of the greatest masterpieces from Sibelius’ pen.

These two large-scale works are here separated by the seven-minute long symphonic poem The Bard from 1913, a work which in its treatment of the thematic material and the chamber-music-like quality of its scoring invites comparison with the Fourth Symphony of two year’s earlier.

This CD features German star violinist Frank Peter Zimmermann as soloist in the virtuoso Sibelius Violin Concerto. The work remains one of the most popular late Romantic concertos in the catalogue.

Frank Peter Zimmermann’s hallmark on this recording is his electrifying approach to the dazzling finale; few performers reach Sibelius’s demanding tempo recommendation for this movement, which critics have described as an ‘invocation’ filled with ‘demonic passion’.

The Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra under chief conductor John Storgårds also perform two powerful rarities by the same composer, the symphonic poems The Bard and The Wood Nymph.

The Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra has unique credentials in performing Sibelius’s music, having premiered these tone poems a century ago, conducted by Sibelius himself.

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.