Sibelius - Historical Recordings & Rarities
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Label: Warner
Cat No: 2564605317
Format: CD
Number of Discs: 7
Release Date: 2nd October 2015
Contents
Works
Andante festivoBelshazzar's Feast: Suite, op.51
Danses champetres (5), op.106
Finlandia, op.26
In memorian, op.59, Trauermarsch fur Orchester
Karelia Suite, op.11
Lemminkainen Suite, op.22
Malinconia, op.20
March of the Finnish Jaeger Battalion, op.91a
Night Ride and Sunrise, op.55
Pelleas and Melisande, op.46
Romance in C major, op.42
Scenes historiques I, op.25
Symphonies 1-7 (complete)
Tapiola, op.112
The Bard, op.64
The Oceanides, op.73
The Tempest, op.109
Violin Concerto in D minor, op.47
Artists
Helmi Liukkonen (soprano)Jascha Heifetz (violin)
Auliki Rautavaara (soprano)
Emil Telmanyi (violin)
Eileen Joyce (piano)
Gerald Moore (piano)
Budapest String Quartet
London Symphony Orchestra
Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra
Finnish Radio Orchestra
Stockholm Opera House Orchestra
Orchestra of the Royal Philharmonic Society
London Philharmonic Orchestra
BBC Symphony Orchestra
Conductors
Robert KajanusThomas Beecham
Serge Koussevitzky
Georg Schneevoigt
Works
Andante festivoBelshazzar's Feast: Suite, op.51
Danses champetres (5), op.106
Finlandia, op.26
In memorian, op.59, Trauermarsch fur Orchester
Karelia Suite, op.11
Lemminkainen Suite, op.22
Malinconia, op.20
March of the Finnish Jaeger Battalion, op.91a
Night Ride and Sunrise, op.55
Pelleas and Melisande, op.46
Romance in C major, op.42
Scenes historiques I, op.25
Symphonies 1-7 (complete)
Tapiola, op.112
The Bard, op.64
The Oceanides, op.73
The Tempest, op.109
Violin Concerto in D minor, op.47
Artists
Helmi Liukkonen (soprano)Jascha Heifetz (violin)
Auliki Rautavaara (soprano)
Emil Telmanyi (violin)
Eileen Joyce (piano)
Gerald Moore (piano)
Budapest String Quartet
London Symphony Orchestra
Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra
Finnish Radio Orchestra
Stockholm Opera House Orchestra
Orchestra of the Royal Philharmonic Society
London Philharmonic Orchestra
BBC Symphony Orchestra
Conductors
Robert KajanusThomas Beecham
Serge Koussevitzky
Georg Schneevoigt
About
Dating from the years between 1928 and 1948, the recordings in this collection were all made during the lifetime of Jean Sibelius (1865-1957). They can be credited with playing a substantial role in propagating his works around the world and in cementing his international reputation as one of the towering figures of 20th century music.
The seven CDs constitute a wide-ranging survey of the composer’s music. Rightly, the seven symphonies are at the heart of the collection. Symphonies Nos 1, 2, 3 and 5 are conducted by the Finn Robert Kajanus, whom Sibelius described in 1934 as “the best conductor my music ever had … he worked and studied and sought unceasingly to play my works exactly as I wanted them to sound.”
Kajanus was Sibelius’ personal choice for the recordings of symphonies Nos 1 and 2, made in London in 1930 with the Orchestra of the Royal Philharmonic Society, and which were followed by the recordings of Nos 3 and 5 in 1932.
Symphony No.4 is conducted by Sir Thomas Beecham (with the London Philharmonic Orchestra in 1937), while Symphony No.7 is conducted by Serge Koussevitzky (a live recording with the BBC Symphony in London 1933). After Kajanus died in 1933, Sibelius said: “Of the men who play my music today, and whose performances I have heard, I prefer Beecham and Koussevitzky. Of Koussevitzky I have heard only the Seventh Symphony records published by the Sibelius Society, but with those I am entirely delighted. Beecham’s performances have come to me by wireless [radio], and they are superb. He is a remarkable man. It gives me the deepest pleasure and satisfaction to see how great an interest he takes in my music and to know that it is he who is playing so much of music to the British public.”
Both Beecham and Koussevitzky were powerful advocates of the composer’s music – Beecham in the UK and on his international tours, Koussevitzky in the US as chief conductor of the Boston Symphony Orchestra, a post he held for 25 years.
Symphony No.6 is conducted by Georg Schneevoigt – a Finn and a close friend of Sibelius, who also leads the performance of the tone poem Luonnotar, which features the soprano Helmi Liukkonen. Drawing like the majority of Sibelius’ tone poems on the Finnish national epic, the Kalevala, it is a stunning piece that describes the creation of the world.
In addition to these works, this box offers much more of the ‘essential Sibelius’: the Violin Concerto, to which Jascha Heifetz (conducted by Beecham) brings his characteristic fusion of fire and ice; eight more of the tone poems, including Finlandia, which famously gave expression to Finland’s defiance of Russian domination at the time of its composition (1899); movements from the Karelia Suite; Valse Triste and extracts from his music for Maeterlinck’s play Pelléas et Mélisande.
Complementing these are a number of lesser-known works, such as the incidental music to Hjalmar Procopé’s play Belshazzar’s Feast, the string quartet 'Voces intimae', and several small-scale pieces for piano, violin, cello and voice.
Other performers featured in the box include: the Budapest String Quartet, the soprano Auliki Rautavaara, the violinist Emil Telmányi, the pianists Eileen Joyce and Gerald Moore and the London Symphony Orchestra, Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra, Finnish Radio Orchestra and Stockholm Opera House Orchestra.
Contents:
CD 1
- Symphony No.1 in E minor, Op.39
- Symphony No.2 in D, Op.43
CD 2
- Symphony No.3 in C, Op.52
- Symphony No.5 in E flat, Op.82
Karelia Suite, Op.11
- I Intermezzo
- III Alla marcia
- March of the Finnish Jaeger Battalion, Op.91a
- Andante festivo (1924)
CD 3
- Pohjola’s Daughter, Op.49
- Belshazzar’s Feast — Suite, Op.51
- Tapiola, Op.112
- Night Ride and Sunrise, Op.55
- The Oceanides, Op.73
- Romance in C, Op.42
CD 4
- Symphony No.4 in A minor, Op.63
- The Bard, Op.64
The Tempest: Incidental Music, Op.109
- Prelude
Suite No.1
- I The Oak Tree
- II Humoresque
- III Caliban’s Song
- VII Intrada — Berceuse
Suite No.2
- IV Prospero
- VI Miranda
Pelléas et Mélisande — Incidental Music, Op.46
- IV A Spring in the Park
- VIII Entr’acte
- IX Death of Mélisande
- In memoriam: funeral march, Op.59
CD 5
- Luonnotar, Op.70
- Symphony No.6 in D minor, Op.104
- Symphony No.7 in C, Op.105
- King Christian II: Suite, Op.27
CD 6
- Violin Concerto in D minor, Op.47
- En Saga, Op.9
- The Return of Lemminkäinen, Op.22 No.4
- Scènes historiques, Op.25: III Festivo
- Finlandia, Op.26
- Kuolema, Op.44 I Valse triste
- Karelia Suite, Op.11: I Intermezzo
CD 7
- String Quartet in D minor, Op.56 'Voces intimae'
- Romance in F, Op.78 No.2
- Danse champêtre, Op.106 No.2
- Danse champêtre, Op.106 No.1
- Mazurka, Op.81 No.1
- Auf dem Herde, Op.115 No.1
- Malinconia, Op.20
- Romance in D flat, Op.24 No.9
- Säv, säv, susa (Sigh, rushes, sigh), Op.36 No.4
- Flickan kom ifrån sin älsklings möte (The girl returned from meeting her lover), Op.37 No.5
- Aus banger Brust (From a fearful heart), Op.50 No.4
- Come away, death (Kom nu hit, död), Op.60 No.1
- Längsamt som kvällskyn (As slowly as the evening sky), Op.61 No.1
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