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See Terms & Conditions for p&p rates. | |  | Sibelius: Symphony No. 2
"Thirty years after his Boston Symphony Orchestra recording of the Second Symphony - long regarded as a benchmark in this work - his enquiring mind is still finding subtly new ways of guiding listeners through the composer's musical logic. Here there was a real feeling of progression from the fragmentary motifs of the opening movement to the climatic 'big tune' of the finale" Daily Telegraph Concert Review A high density DSD recording, Barbican Centre on 27-28 September 2006
(Symphony No 2) 18 September-9 October 2005 (Pohjola's Daughter) “What Sir Colin Davis has to say about Sibelius's Second Symphony hasn't changed in substance since his first recording with the Boston Symphony (Philips), but the paragraphs now flow with ever more assured cadences. The life-anddeath struggle of the second movement is underlined by two alternating tempi which Davis has not contrasted so dramatically before.
Strong rhythmic underpinnings in the Scherzo, the highly contrasted trio and their eventual assimilation into the mighty onrush towards the finale: these all have a distinctively Beethovenian cast. The finale's jubilations justify their length and splendour, just about, with some generous portamento and care over the recitatives of the central, quieter section.
Pohjola's Daughter is an unusual but logical coupling, having its origins in the same Italian trip that brought the birthpangs of the Second Symphony. The tone-poem only saw the light five years after the symphony, however, and you could see it as the Yin to the finale's Yang, moving from the interrupted sonata-form processes of the symphony's first movement into still darker regions of creative despair – the Fourth Symphony looms on the horizon. You can sense this in Davis's conception, which prizes coherence over local colour.” Gramophone Classical Music Guide, 2010 “What Sir Colin Davis has to say about Sibelius's Second Symphony hasn’t changed in substance since his first recording with the Boston Symphony, but the paragraphs now flow with ever more assured, Wordsworthian cadences… The life-and-death struggle of the second movement is underlined by two alternating tempi which Davis has not contrasted so dramatically before, not even in the quicker concert performance in Dresden.” Gramophone Magazine, June 2007 “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 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 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 “[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 **** “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) | Usually despatched in 2 - 3 working days. (Available now to download.) |
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| |  | Sibelius - Symphony No. 2
“…a refreshing alternative to more granitic interpretations - and a sonic treat for SACD listeners.” BBC Music Magazine, August 2008 **** “I like the symphony enormously……The finale has wonderful breadth and there is real grandeur in the final paragraphs and no hint of bombast. Similarly, in Tapiola and The Swan Ashkanazy proves an idiomatic and
authoritive guide…..I think I would buy this version for its sheer naturalness.” International Record Review, September 2008 | | | Usually despatched in 4 - 5 working days. |
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| |  | Sibelius: Symphony No. 2 in D major, Op. 43
“Mariss Jansons, the world's most sought-after conductor… (Norman Lebrecht) “The playing is beautiful, especially some of the woodwind solos; the string tone is rich and varied… It is also good to hear an interpretation that reminds one how much the younger Sibelius owed to Tchaikovsky…” BBC Music Magazine, May 2006 *** | | | Usually despatched in 3 - 4 working days. |
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| |  | Sibelius - Symphonies Nos. 2 & 7
“…Finn Paavo Berglund is now the composer's most authoritative living interpreter. Hearing his live recording of the Seventh Symphony, a lifetime's questioning distilled in a single monolithic movement, you can understand why. Berglund knows exactly how and where to place the centres of gravity: how effortlessly he makes the LPO ensemble lean in to the crucial trombone solo as Sibelius lays down his first cornerstone...” BBC Music Magazine, December 2005 ***** | | | (also available to download from $10.50) | Usually despatched in 2 - 3 working days. (Available now to download.) |
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| |  | Sibelius, Tubin: Symphonies 2 & 5
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