Sibelius - Piano Quintets and Melodramas | BIS BISCD1412

Sibelius - Piano Quintets and Melodramas

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Label: BIS

Cat No: BISCD1412

Format: CD

Number of Discs: 1

Release Date: 30th April 2007

Contents

Artists

Jaakko Kuusisto (violin)
Laura Vikman (violin)
Anna Kreetta Gribajcevic (viola)
Joel Laakso (cello)
Folke Gräsbeck (piano)
Monica Groop (mezzo-soprano)
Lasse Pöysti (recitation)

Works

Sibelius, Jean

Ett ensamt skidspar (A Lonely Ski-Trail), JS77a
Nacken (The Watersprite), JS138
O, om du sett (Oh, If You Had Seen), JS141
Piano Quintet in G minor, JS159
Svartsjukans Natter (Nights of Jealousy), JS125
Vivace for piano quintet, JS31

Artists

Jaakko Kuusisto (violin)
Laura Vikman (violin)
Anna Kreetta Gribajcevic (viola)
Joel Laakso (cello)
Folke Gräsbeck (piano)
Monica Groop (mezzo-soprano)
Lasse Pöysti (recitation)

About

Apart from Voces intimae, his final string quartet, the chamber music of Jean Sibelius has been rather over-shadowed by the orchestral masterpieces. In more recent years, however, research into the composer’s manuscripts and, not least, a number of recordings on BIS have brought this music to a wider audience. 
 
On the present disc, three works for piano quintet are partnered with four pieces that combine voice (in recitation as well as song) and instruments. The largest single work is the Quintet in G minor with a duration of 38 minutes, “a work in which Sibelius strove for a new ruggedness and severity of mood”, according to the informed liner notes by Andrew Barnett. As the fourth of the Quintet’s five movements, Sibelius wrote a Vivace which was later replaced. This can also be found on the present disc, as well as the slightly earlier ‘Andante – Allegro’ for the same forces. 
 
From the remaining works, The Watersprite was one of Sibelius’s first publicly performed pieces, composed in the same year as the setting of his childhood friend Ellen Hackzell’s short poem Oh, If You Had Seen. 
 
The disc also features acclaimed Finnish mezzo-soprano Monica Groop and Lasse Pöysti, doyen among Finnish actors.
 
World premiere recordings of:
- Vivace for piano quintet, JS31 (1890)
- Andante – Allegro for piano quintet, JS31 (1888-89)
- Song from Näcken (The Watersprite), JS138 (1888) for soprano, recitation, violin, cello and piano
- O, om du sett (Oh, If You Had Seen), JS141 (1888) for recitation and piano

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