Sibelius: King Kristian II, incidental music, Op. 27 (König Christian)

“The New Zealand Symphony have a thoroughly international sound, but its playing is top-notch in every way…this is [Inkinen’s] first Sibelius disc with his new orchestra, and it's a winner all around… this is a first-rate disc. Naxos provides a full-sounding recording with an ideal balance between hall ambience and detail… notes by Keith Anderson cover all the important bases. Let's look forward to more Sibelius from Inkinen—he's one to watch.” Fanfare

“Recordings of this entrancing repertoire are always welcome, particularly when they are as polished and involving as this. Pietari Inkinen (b1980) has recently taken up the reins as the NZSO's music director and, on this showing, is a talent to watch. Not only does he draw some high-quality, notably zestful playing from his new charges, he directs both sets of Scènes historiques with such keen temperament, abundant character and sensitivity to texture and nuance that they come up sounding strikingly newminted.
Indeed, his generously expressive and pliable shaping of the ravishing secondary material in 'Festivo' manages to stoke memories of Beecham's indelible RPO rendering from the early 1950s – and that's saying something! In the King Christian II suite, Inkinen and his responsive band easily hold their own against some stiff competition. There's some particularly eloquent string-playing in the achingly wistful 'Elegy' (where Inkinen distils a hushed intimacy that is deeply touching), while the dashing helterskelter ride of the concluding 'Ballade' has both invigorating spring and bite to commend it.
Boasting handsomely true and atmospheric sound, this collection certainly merits the attention of all Sibelians and represents enticing value at bargain price.” Gramophone Classical Music Guide, 2010

“Recordings of this entrancing repertoire are always welcome, particularly when they are as polished and involving as this. Pietari Inkinen is a talent to watch. Not only does he draw some high-quality, notably zestful playing from his new charges, he directs both sets of Scènes historiques with such keen temperament, abundant character and sensitivity to texture and nuance that they come up sounding strikingly new-minted.” Gramophone Magazine, March 2008

“Sibelius supplied four numbers for the February 1898 Helsinki premiere of Adolf Paul's historical drama King Christian II – the ' Minuet', 'The Fool's Song', 'Elegy' and 'Musette' – and these eventually took their place in the five-movement concert suite alongside the 'Nocturne', 'Serenade' and 'Ballade' which the composer completed the same summer. The street music of the 'Musette' is simply delightful in its original garb without added strings, and in both the 'Serenade' and 'Ballade' Vänskä uncovers strong thematic and stylistic links with the almost exactly contemporaneous First Symphony. The defiant quality these fine artists bring to 'The Fool's Song' ( eloquently delivered by Raimo Laukka) is also very likeable. Music-making of refreshing perception and meticulous sensitivity similarly illuminates this first complete recording of Sibelius's original incidental music for a 1905 production of Maeterlinck's symbolist play (the venue was again Helsinki's Swedish Theatre).
There are 10 numbers in all.
The performance of the Karelia Suite in its original scoring (which acts as a splendid curtain- raiser here) has been compiled from Vänskä's complete recording of the original Karelia music. Both outer movements have a real sense of pageantry about them (Vänskä directs with exhilaratingly clean-limbed swagger), though there are certain reservations about his occasional predilection for exaggerated and affected pianopianissimos.
Thus, at around 3'30" in the central 'Ballade' (track 2), the dynamic level drops almost below the threshold of audibility and has you rushing to boost the volume control ( Vänskä repeats this trick twice in the King ChristianII 'Elegy', and towards the end of the final number in Pelléas). For optimum results, therefore, playback needs to be higher than many listeners may think reasonable. That said, the engineering is quite spectacularly truthful throughout and there's no doubt that this is an unusually absorbing collection.” Gramophone Classical Music Guide, 2010