FreeFreight Is Available. Click for Details
Audio Samples
Album Summary
Performers
Ilkka Palli (Cello)- Antti Autio (Trombone)
- Eeva Maenluoma (Clarinet)
- Timo Saarenpää (Clarinet)
Notes & Reviews:
The first chapter in the BIS Sibelius Edition contained some of the Finnish master's most celebrated works, his Tone Poems. In the ten volumes that have been released after that, we have presented various less known aspects of Sibelius: the composer of chamber works and piano music, the miniaturist, and as the author of an opera. With the present installment, the 12th and penultimate, we return to a genre for which he is particularly celebrated, namely the symphonic. The Seven Symphonies are undisputed treasures of 20th-century music which have fascinated great conductors and international audiences alike. They are here presented in performances by Osmo Vanska, described in American Record Guide as the "the Sibelius interpreter de nos jours", and the eminent Lahti Symphony Orchestra, whose principal conductor he was for 20 years. The team's recordings of the symphony cycle has been described as towering head and shoulders over the competition. In the French magazine Repertoire, and on the website Classical Source as being "almost universally recognized as the best of the digital age". As these recordings now are given pride of place in the Sibelius Edition, they are complemented by alternative versions and fragments which provide a fascinating background to the final versions. The most substantial of these is the original version of the Symphony no.5, available only in this recording, which upon its original release in 1996 not only received a Gramophone Award for its technical qualities but also was described by the same magazine's reviewer as one of the most important and above all interesting records to have appeared for many years. Also unique for BIS are the recordings of the remaining supplementary material, made under supervision of the violinist and conductor Jaakko Kuusisto and released here for the first time. Besides a number of short fragments which illustrate the decision-making process of the composer's creative mind in detail, it also includes preliminary versions of three complete movements: the scherzos from Symphonies Nos. 1 and 4, and the second movement of Symphony No. 3. In the accompanying booklet (numbering 128 pages), Sibelius expert Andrew Barnett guides us through this central chapter in Sibelius' Oeuvre - an occasion not to be missed!
"Osmo Vänskä's Sibelius cycle is unquestionably one of the great ones, and its qualities are well-known: extremes of tempo (the Scherzo of the First, the Largo of the Fourth), the extremely wide dynamic range (those super-duper pianissimos), and the remarkable clarity of texture produced partly by excellent playing, partly by the smallish size of the Lahti orchestra. The performances are fresh, intense, intelligent, and always idiomatic. At five discs for the price of three, you also get the original version of the Fifth Symphony in its entirety (much inferior but fascinating all the same). However, what makes this reissue essential to all Sibelius collectors is the additional disc of early versions of movements, or bits of movements, from all of the symphonies save the Sixth... If you know these symphonies well, you'll be enthralled and won't for a second regret purchasing this box, even if you have to give the discs you already own to a friend." -ClassicsToday (10/10)
Gramophone
Osmo Vänskä's credentials as a first-rate Sibelian symphonic interpreter were confirmed in 1995 with the release of the Fifth Symphony in its 1915 version (4/96), so its presence in this complete set is most apt. It also gives the issue a huge advantage over all rivals which, of course, include the final Fifth. BIS has wisely redistributed the symphonies chronologically across the discs, rather than retaining the original dispositions (9/97, A/97, 12/97, 7/98). Taken together, this is a comprehensively original cycle, revealing without being controversial, direct in utterance yet precisely calculated. It is certainly, in my view, the finest survey of the past three decades... splendid sound makes this indispensable for all devotees of Sibelius.
Reviews
There are currently no reviews, be the first one!Also Purchased
 |
 |
Works Details
Sibelius, Jean : Symphony no 1 in E minor, Op. 39 - Performer: Timo Saarenpää (Clarinet)
- Conductor: Osmo Vänskä
- Running Time: 45 min. 34 sec.
- Period Time: Post Romantic
- Form: Orchestral
- Written: 1899
Sibelius, Jean : Symphony no 2 in D major, Op. 43 - Conductor: Osmo Vänskä
- Running Time: 51 min. 28 sec.
- Period Time: Post Romantic
- Form: Orchestral
- Written: 1901-1902
Sibelius, Jean : Symphony no 3 in C major, Op. 52 - Conductor: Osmo Vänskä
- Running Time: 43 min. 5 sec.
- Period Time: Post Romantic
- Form: Orchestral
- Written: 1904-1907
Sibelius, Jean : Symphony no 4 in A minor, Op. 63 - Performer: Ilkka Palli (Cello)
- Conductor: Osmo Vänskä
- Running Time: 45 min. 1 sec.
- Period Time: Post Romantic
- Form: Orchestral
- Written: 1910-1911
Sibelius, Jean : Symphony no 5 in E flat major, Op. 82 - Conductor: Osmo Vänskä
- Running Time: 61 min. 31 sec.
- Period Time: Post Romantic
- Form: Orchestral
- Written: 1919
Sibelius, Jean : Symphony no 6 in D minor, Op. 104 - Conductor: Osmo Vänskä
- Running Time: 26 min. 30 sec.
- Period Time: Post Romantic
- Form: Orchestral
- Written: 1923
Sibelius, Jean : Symphony no 7 in C major, Op. 105 - Performer: Antti Autio (Trombone)
- Conductor: Osmo Vänskä
- Running Time: 23 min. 14 sec.
- Period Time: Post Romantic
- Form: Orchestral
- Written: 1924
Sibelius, Jean : Symphony no 1 in E minor, Op. 39 - Performer: Eeva Maenluoma (Clarinet)
- Conductor: Osmo Vänskä
- Running Time: 45 min. 34 sec.
- Period Time: Post Romantic
- Form: Orchestral
- Written: 1899
Sibelius, Jean : Symphony no 2 in D major, Op. 43 - Conductor: Osmo Vänskä
- Running Time: 51 min. 28 sec.
- Period Time: Post Romantic
- Form: Orchestral
- Written: 1901-1902
Sibelius, Jean : Symphony no 3 in C major, Op. 52 - Conductor: Osmo Vänskä
- Running Time: 43 min. 5 sec.
- Period Time: Post Romantic
- Form: Orchestral
- Written: 1904-1907
Sibelius, Jean : Symphony no 4 in A minor, Op. 63 - Conductor: Osmo Vänskä
- Running Time: 45 min. 1 sec.
- Period Time: Post Romantic
- Form: Orchestral
- Written: 1910-1911
Sibelius, Jean : Symphony no 7 in C major, Op. 105 - Conductor: Osmo Vänskä
- Running Time: 23 min. 14 sec.
- Period Time: Post Romantic
- Form: Orchestral
- Written: 1924
