Sibelius: The Tempest - Overture, Op. 109 No. 1

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.