Sibelius: Symphony No. 4 in A minor, Op. 63

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’.

Mark Obert-Thorn, producer and audio restoration engineer

Three historically significant première recordings of Sibelius symphonies are brought together on this reissue for the first time. Finnish conductor Georg Schnéevoigt was close to Sibelius and a perceptive interpreter of his music, making this lucid and controlled first recording of the Sixth Symphony following the death of Robert Kajanus, who was to have recorded the complete symphonies. Made during the Great Depression, Leopold Stokowski’s compelling performance of the Fourth Symphony reflects the composer’s ‘solitude and pain’. Renowned Russian conductor Serge Koussevitzky directs Sibelius’s final Seventh Symphony in a famously intense live performance.

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.

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