uk sibelius society newsletter no. 74

ISSN 1473-4206

www.sibeliussociety.info

United Kingdom SibeliUS SocietyneWSletteR no. 74abbreviatedonlineedition

United Kingdom Sibelius Society

Newsletter – abbreviated version

Issue 74 (January 2014)

Thank you for downloading this edition of the UK Sibelius SocietyNewsletter. This online edition is an abbreviated version: whilstnews items and most listings are reproduced intact, the main articlesappear only as stubs. The full versions can be found in the printededition, delivered twice a year to all members of the Society. Tojoin the Society, please contact:

Edward Clark51 Vernon Avenue, Wimbledon, London SW20 8BNe-mail: [email protected].

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The United Kingdom Sibelius Society would like to thank its corporate members for their generous support:

BB-Shipping (Greenwich) LtdChester Music LtdBreitkopf & Härtel

Transfennica (U.K.) LtdSkandinaviska Enskilda Banken

News & Views

Oxford University Summer School, August 2014

Oxford University Summer School for Adults is arranging a summer schoolabout Sibelius on 2nd–9th August 2014. During the course of the week topicswill include the symphonies and much other music, as well as the relationshipbetween the composer’s life and his music.

This course aims to provide an introduction to aspects of Sibelius’s lifeand music, in which the featured works will be discussed in detail, while al-lowing time for them to be heard in their entirety. This course will enablestudents to enjoy the music of Sibelius through selective and careful listening,examine the nature and evolution of Sibelius’s musical language, explore theideas which inspired Sibelius, examine the relationship between Sibelius’slife and his art, and to assess the contribution of Sibelius to the repertory andhistory of music.

On acceptance participants will be given preparatory reading and a titlefor a short essay to be submitted before the summer school begins. A furtherpiece of coursework will be completed during the week; this may take theform of another essay or a presentation, undertaken either individually orjointly with another student. All summer school courses are taught throughgroup seminars and individual tutorials. Students also conduct private studywhen not in class and there is a well stocked library at Oxford UniversityDepartment for Continuing Education to support individual research needs.

Tutor for this course will be Terry Barfoot, who has worked at the OxfordUniversity Summer School for Adults for more than 20 years and is a well-known figure in the musical life of southern England. He has lectured at theBritish Library, the Royal Opera House Covent Garden and the Three ChoirsFestival. He has written widely about music and opera, and is publicationsconsultant to the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra.

Course fees start at £610. For further information and enrolment please visit:www.conted.ox.ac.uk/courses/details.php?id=W300-184&pos=135&wk=4

For information about other events organized by Terry Barfoot please visitwww.artsinresidence.co.uk

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Sibelius from Atlanta

The Grammy Award-winning Atlanta Sym-phony Orchestra has released its fourthrecording on its record label, ASO Media.Distributed by Naxos of America, this all-Sibelius release features the orchestra’slong-standing music director Robert Spanoleading the orchestra in Symphonies No. 6and No. 7 plus Tapiola (catalogue number:ASO1004). The recordings were made inJanuary 2013 and, according to a review byBlair Sanderson (www.allmusic.com), theperformances are‘ transparent and meticulously rendered… [they] makeevery note perfectly audible and still communicate the power and passion ofSibelius’s rigorously organic scores’. Spano and the Atlanta orchestra havepreviously recorded Kullervo for Telarc Classical (CD 80665).

Further information: www.atlantasymphony.org

Original Fifth Symphony in Brisbane

The original 1915 version of Sibelius’s Fifth Symphony is scheduled to re-ceive its Australian première on Thursday 19th June 2014, with a further per-formance on 21st June. The performers will be the Queensland SymphonyOrchestra conducted by Rumon Gamba. The concert will take place at Bris-bane’s Queensland Performing Arts Centre (QPAC) Concert Hall. Unlikemany of Sibelius’s other early versions, the original Fifth Symphony hashardly ever been heard in public since its initial run or performances coin-ciding with Sibelius’s fiftieth birthday. In this concert it will be coupled withRachmaninov’s Third Piano Concerto, with Bezhod Abduraimov as soloist.

Further information and season brochure: www.qso.com.au

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Tom Krause 5th July 1934 − 6th December 2013

The Finnish baritone Tom Krause has passed away at his home in Hamburg,at the age of 79. Equally successful in the fields of opera, recital, oratorioand recording, he was internationally recognized as one of the greatest vocalartists of his time.

Initially trained as a doctor, Tom Krause was fluent in seven languages(English, German, French, Italian, Spanish, Swedish and Finnish) and en-joyed a career spanning over fifty roles. He performed in most of the greatopera houses of the world, including Milan’s La Scala, the Teatro Colón inBuenos Aires, the Berlin Opera, the Vienna State Opera, the Munich StateOpera, the Paris Operas (Garnier and Bastille), La Monnaie in Brussels, theFinnish National Opera, the Metropolitan Opera House, the Lyric Opera ofChicago, the San Francisco Opera as well as at festivals including Bayreuth,Salzburg, Edinburgh, Glyndebourne, Savonlinna and Tanglewood.

A frequent guest soloist in concert, he collaborated regularly with orches-tras such as the Philadelphia Orchestra, New York Philharmonic, ChicagoSymphony Orchestra, Cleveland Orchestra, Boston Symphony Orchestra,Los Angeles Philharmonic, Montreal Symphony Orchestra, Berlin Philhar-monic Orchestra, Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra, Orchestre National deFrance and Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra. Artists with whom he collabo-rated include Plácido Domingo, Luciano Pavarotti, Jessye Norman, Kiri TeKanawa, Joan Sutherland, Birgit Nilsson, Marilyn Horne, Margaret Price,Teresa Berganza and Nicolai Gedda, as well conductors such as Bernstein,Stravinsky, Solti, Karajan, Ormandy, Rostropovich, Salonen and Giulini.

A renowned recital artist, he gave countless solo recitals in the most im-portant cities in the USA, Canada, Europe and Japan. He also appeared innumerous television and feature films.

As one of the most prolific recording artists of our era, he made more thana hundred recordings. He recorded a selection of Sibelius songs for Deccaand then went on to sing the lion’s share of Argo’s complete Sibelius songsproject which also featured Irwin Gage, Elisabeth Söderström and VladimirAshkenazy. This recording of the complete Sibelius songs received the Edi-son Prize, the Deutscher Schallplattenpreis and a Gramophone Prize.

He also served as a guest professor at the Sibelius Academy in Helsinki,

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professor at the Music Academy in Hamburg and professor at the QueenSofia School of Music, Madrid, Spain, where he led the vocal department.Because of his enormous experience in all the fields of classical music andhis interest in passing on his legacy of great singing, he was in great demandfor masterclasses around the world and was highly regarded as a juror in themost important international singing competitions.

In 1990, the Finnish State awarded Tom Krause the Order of the FinnishLion – the highest award for cultural personalities in Finland. He was alsogiven the title Kammersänger in Hamburg for his achievements there. Inrecognition of his brilliant artistic contribution to his native Finland, HelsinkiUniversity awarded him the title of Doctor of Music Honoris Causa. He wasalso awarded he was given the Sibelius medal by the Sibelius Academy, ho-nouring his work in music in Finland and around the world.

Sir Simon Rattle · Berlin PhilharmonicLondon Residency 2015

Following a successful London residency in 2011, Sir Simon Rattle and theBerlin Philharmonic will return to the city with a series of concerts in Feb-ruary 2015. The principal focus will be a complete cycle of Sibelius sym-phonies at the Barbican: the First and Second will be performed on 10thFebruary, the Third and Fourth (along with the Violin Concerto, soloistLeonidas Kavakos) on 11th, with the Fifth, Sixth and Seventh symphoniesfollowing on 12th February. The residency then moves to the Southbank Cen-tre’s Royal Festival Hall, for performances of music by Helmut Lachenmannand Mahler. Sir Simon Rattle celebrates his sixtieth birthday in 2015 and wasappointed to the Order of Merit in Britain’s New Year’s Honours List in 2014.The OM is restricted to 24 living individuals at any given time. Rattle is thefirst musician of his generation to be included

Further information:www.thelondonresidency.comwww.barbican.org.uk

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Correspondence

I always enjoy reading the Sibelius Society Newsletter and No. 73 seemedfuller and more varied than ever. There were three things that jumped out atme and which made me want to respond.

First, is The Bard really all that neglected? I heard a performance by theHallé and Mark Elder in February 2012 and the BBC Philharmonic and JohnStorgårds played it in October this year. There are several other Sibelius tonepoems that don’t appear to have been done in Manchester for a long time.

Second, I was pleased that John Davis enjoyed the BBC Philharmonicsymphony cycle under John Storgårds in June but I was rather surprised athis enthusiasm. My wife Jasna and I went to the three concerts with highhopes but were disappointed. For me Symphony No. 6 was outstanding butin the rest that indefinable but unmistakable ‘Sibelius magic’ was simplymissing. No. 3 and No. 5 in particular just seemed dull. Perhaps the fact thatthe Bridgewater Hall was poorly attended had something to do with it. I thinkthat in the light of the reviews of their recent recording of the Second Sym-phony, Manchester audiences will be looking out for Sibelius performancesby the Hallé for their Nordic treats this season (En saga in October, Sym-phony No. 1 in January and Symphony No. 7 in March, though none of theseis to be conducted by Mark Elder). Still, that did not deter me from going tothe BBC Philharmonic concert mentioned above which started with The Bardand concludes with Nielsen’s Sixth Symphony – a favourite of mine whichI have never heard live.

Thirdly, that wonderful poem Ironing with Sibelius! I am glad that I amnot the only one who irons while listening to CDs. In fact ironing ceased longago to be a chore as I associate it with listening to music, but I could neverexpress it as well as Günther Bedson. What I listen to depends less on mymood than the amount of ironing to do so my choice of Kullervo or a shortpiano piece is determined by how much washing I have done recently. Justafter reading the poem I found that a couple of tablecloths went very wellwith The Oceanides. Thank you Günther for translating into poetry that ex-perience of Sibelius transforming an everyday task into an uplifting activity.

Peter ConnorsAlderley Edge

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The Lahti Sibelius Festival5th–8th September 2013

The 2012 Sibelius Festival held a concert of piano transcriptions of cer-tain pieces of theatre incidental music. I wrote that, if I had to choosejust one Sibelian idiom to listen to for one year it would be the theatre

music. Hey presto, in 2013 the festival theme was music written for theatreproductions so I approached the series of concerts with high hopes. I was notdisappointed.

The joy of these annual Sibelius festivals in Lahti is that attendees can im-merse themselves in aspects of the Sibelian muse, be it symphonic, theatre,national romantic, other orchestral, choral, chamber, songs and so on. By fo-cusing on the range of Sibelius’s theatre output in 2013 the audience couldunderstand the wide range of his sympathies when it came to (mainly) con-temporary plays, be they from Finland or further afield. The exception washis greatest contribution to theatre music, over an hour of generally sublimepieces for The Tempest by Shakespeare, written in 1925.

The sheer number of plays he set to music allied to the quality of his in-spiration points to his preference for this medium over opera, an interestingaspect to his creative mind that was reinforced throughout the festival. Quitewhy this should be so is hard to fathom. He had plenty of opportunities foropera composition but produced only one, early and unrepresentative exam-ple, The Maiden in the Tower (1896). Incidental music, however, occupiedhim throughout his creative life. This is a catch-all title as it embraces musicfor theatre productions as well as for special occasions, such as the Musicfor the Press Celebrations (1899).

Edward W. Clark

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The full version of this article can be found in the printed edition of the UK Sibelius Society’s Newsletter, delivered twice a year to all members ofthe Society. To join the Society, please contact Edward Clark, 51 Vernon

Avenue, Wimbledon, London SW20 8BN / e-mail: [email protected]

With its focus on Sibelius’s theatre music, 2013’s Sibelius Festivalin Lahti returned to a theme that last featured at a festival in thisseries back in 2003, but with some differences in the selection of

music. The overall format of the festival conformed to the established patternof three orchestral concerts at the Sibelius Hall (Thursday, Friday and Satur-day evenings) and two chamber events (Saturday lunchtime at the KaleviAho Hall and Sunday morning at the Sibelius Hall); all of the orchestral con-certs were conducted by the Lahti Symphony Orchestra’s principal conductorand the festival’s artistic director, Okko Kamu.

The festival’s opening concert was broadcast live on Finnish Radio as wellas being recorded for the ClassicLive website (www.classiclive.com). Muchof the music heard at this concert came from the years immediately surround-ing Sibelius’s move to Ainola. The main focus was on two major orchestralsuites: Pelléas et Mélisande (1905, for the play by Maurice Maeterlinck) andKing Christian II (1898, Adolf Paul). Highlights included the supple, care-fully balanced string playing in The Death of Méli sande and an intense ac-count of the Nocturne from King Christian II, broad and relaxed yet alsomajestic. The faster music was equally impressive: the Entr’acte from Pelléashad snappy string playing and crisp, alert winds, whilst the Ballade fromKing Christian II combined precision and spirit to thrilling effect. Overallthe contrast in format between the two suites made for an appealing pro-gramme: Pelléas is a succession of preludes, character portraits and en-tr’actes, whereas King Christian II, scored for a larger orchestra, is moresymphonic in its lay-out and aspiration. These suites were framed and sepa-rated by three rarities, Musik zu einer Scène, Scène de ballet and Cor tège.Owing its inclusion in a theatre-based programme to its original function astableau music, Musik zu einer Scène (1904) was late reworked as Dance In-termezzo.

Andrew G. Barnett

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Happenings in Finlandby John J. Davis

As you see there’s a comprehensive appraisal of the 2013 LahtiSibelius Festival in this issue, this year’s event accompanied by won-derful weather that allowed some of us a voyage on Lake Vesijärvi,

the boat seemingly taken over by UK Sibelius Society members.After all the glories of the above, a delegation of us made our way to

Helsinki for general exploration and some steady ‘imbibing’! The latter tookplace on the island of Seurasaari where I’d laid on ‘wine in the woods’; wedrank the health of all Society members whilst listening to the Nocturne fromKing Christian II on my iPhone!

While walking in Helsinki, with my friends Janet and David Abbotts, how-ever, we had the good fortune to come face to face (by sheer coincidenceright next to Jean Sibelius’s drinking establishment, the Hotel Kämp) withno less than Vladimir Ashkenazy. We introduced ourselves, and he said thathe was in Finland for recording sessions in Järvenpää with the Finnish so-prano Soile Isokoski – had we heard of her? I said very much so, havingheard her ‘live’ in a previous year in Lahti, and that I had recordings of hersinging Sibelius with the Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra and Leif Seger -stam plus Richard Strauss’s Four Last Songs with the Berlin Radio Sym-phony Orchestra and Marek Janowski.

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Fifteenth International Sibelius FestivalLahti · 4th–7th September 2014

Orchestral Concerts – conducted by Okko Kamu:

Thursday 4th September Spring Song (original version)Violin Concerto (original version) Ilja Gringolts, violinSymphony No. 3 (incl. draft version of the second movement)

Friday 5th SeptemberThe Oceanides (Yale version)En saga (original version)Lemminkäinen Suite (incl. original movements)

Saturday 6th September In memoriam (original version)Rakastava (1911 version)Cassazione (original version)Symphony No. 5 (original 1915 version)

Chamber Concerts

Saturday 6th September (lunchtime)Six Impromptus, Op. 5 (with Harvard manuscript version of Nos 5 & 6)Kyllikki, Op. 41 (with sketch version of slow movement)‘The Trees’, Op. 75 (with early versions and ‘No. 6’, Syringa)Three Pieces, Op. 96 (with early versions)Valse triste (first piano transcription)Folke Gräsbeck, piano

Sunday 7th September Sonata in A minor, JS 177 · Five PiecesFour Pieces, Op. 78 · Five Pieces, Op. 81 · Four Pieces, Op. 115Jaakko Kuusisto, violin / Heini Kärkkäinen, piano

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Sixteenth International Sibelius FestivalLahti · 31st August–6th September 2015

In the Sibelius jubilee year of 2015 the Sibelius Festival will be extended toinclude six orchestral concerts featuring all seven symphonies, the ViolinConcerto, Kullervo and the Lemminkäinen Suite. For the first time at thefestival there will be guest appearances by two other orchestras and four otherconductors – including Osmo Vänskä and Jukka-Pekka Saraste, the festival’sprevious artistic directors. Details of chamber concerts (including the finalSunday morning performance, 6th September) will be announced later.

Monday 31st AugustTapiola · Luonnotar · Lemminkäinen SuiteHelsinki Philharmonic Orchestra / Leif Segerstam · Anu Komsi, soprano

Tuesday 1st SeptemberThe Wood-Nymph · Symphonies No. 3 and No. 4 Lahti Symphony Orchestra / Osmo Vänskä

Wednesday 2nd SeptemberThe Origin of Fire · The Rapids-Rider’s Brides · KullervoBBC Symphony Orchestra / Sakari OramoSoloists and male choir to be announced

Thursday 3rd SeptemberViolin Concerto · Symphony No. 2BBC Symphony Orchestra / Okko Kamu · Sergey Malov, violin

Friday 4th SeptemberThe Bard · Symphonies No. 1 and No. 5Lahti Symphony Orchestra / Jukka-Pekka Saraste

Saturday 5th SeptemberThe Oceanides · Pohjola’s Daughter · Symphonies No. 6 and No. 7Lahti Symphony Orchestra / Okko Kamu

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Bookings for the Sibelius Festival in Lahti · 2014 & 2015

— Important Information —

As usual I am pleased to help members with bookings for the Festivalin Lahti; I can arrange discounted concert tickets and, if necessary, dis-counted hotel accommodation, organized in collaboration with theLahti Symphony Orchestra.

Tickets are normally booked as a block of excellent seats in the bestarea of the hall. Cheaper seats are available but please advise me at anearly stage if you wish to sit elsewhere. Tickets are paid for upon col-lection at the Sibelius Hall Box Office.

As members book their flights individually in accordance with theirown requirements, please be sure to specify which nights you wouldlike to stay in Lahti, and whether you need a single, twin or doubleroom. The hotel will probably be the Lahti Cumulus but this, alongwith this year’s room rates (which include breakfast), will be an-nounced closer to the event. Payment is made direct to the hotel whenyou check out.

For 2015 in particular the demand for tickets and rooms will be high.Therefore please let me know as soon as possible whether you expectto attend that year. At this stage I would ask for a reasonably firm com-mitment for 2014, and a realistic expression of interest for 2015. If indoubt, please ask to be added to the list: it is better to book and cancel(without financial penalty) rather than delay and find that allseats/rooms are sold out.

In recent years, some members have requested bookings at a very latestage. Owing to holidays in Finland, and to guarantee the best seatsand prices, this year the absolute deadline for applications is 1stMay 2014. Please contact Andrew Barnett with your requirements orfor further information [[email protected]].

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Sibelius, Communication and Social Mediaby Andrew G. Barnett

We all know that there are many myths and half-truths surroundingthe life and work of Jean Sibelius, and probably every reader ofthis journal has his or her own bête noire among them: that

Sibelius was miserable and depressive; that he lived a life of publicly fundedluxury on his state pension; that he was a folklorist; that he was a Nazi; andso on. In the modern era, however, we do – or should – have sufficient re-sources at our disposal to scotch such misconceptions, or at the very least toseparate fact from fiction. It is really not such a long time since works thatwe now regard as intriguing rarities were nothing more than a name in a cat-alogue, something that we might aspire to hear but which seemed far beyondour reach. I remember from my own student days the excitement of findingthe sheet music for Sibelius songs or piano pieces in libraries or dusty sec-ond-hand bookshops – works which, although published, remained largelyunperformed and therefore had the appeal of an exotic novelty. But nowadayswe can listen to all of his music on CD, even the rarest pieces; we can readilybuy scores or sheet music of a wide range of his compositions; the JSW crit-ical edition of his works is gradually building into an impressive resource forlisteners and performers alike; numerous biographies are on sale; and web-sites such as www.sibelius.fi are helping to strengthen and extend what mightbe termed the ‘culture of Sibelius’. The social media have become a signifi-cant part of this new cultural landscape, with online forums (for examplewww.sibelius.forumup.com), Facebook and Twitter.

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Sibelius’s Sixth SymphonyTowards Eternity… and Beyond

by Peter Frankland

Dost know the stillness,That submerges everything as in an eternity of longing –The shores, the heavens, the seaIn one thought of God.

Sibelius’s Sixth is as powerful a symphony as any I know and yet out-wardly it can seem deceptively simple and restrained. It was with thiswork in mind, of course, that Sibelius made his famous remark that

while other composers are mixing cocktails of various hues, he was offeringthe public pure spring water, it is also undoubtedly the serenest and essen-tially the happiest of the master’s symphonies – but all is not sweetness andlight; in the remarkable last movement Sibelius gives us a storm which in itsway is every bit as overwhelming as Tapiola! But more of that later.

The symphony opens on a cosmic scale, and the rich polyphony of the di-vided strings has been compared to Palestrina, Lassus and the English six-teenth-century masters, whom Sibelius was known to admire. This openingcould be on a Brucknerian time scale, Sibelius wishing to convey somethinginfinite, mystical and in some ways sacred. We hear a variation of theprimeval motif of the entire symphony, the first of many we will hear: thistechnique, which might be described as ‘continuous variation’, had long beenone that had occupied Sibelius in the development of his unique symphonicstyle. The work begins with a simple chorale-like idea built from just fourdescending notes. The mastery of musical motion that Sibelius had evincedin his Fifth Symphony is here, in No. 6, so assured as to seem almost likesleight of hand.

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Recommended Reading

SIBELIUSANDREW BARNETT

‘A thankfully balanced picture of a deeply contrasted man… immensely inform-ative’ — BBC Music Magazine · ‘A book of great importance: a fresh, evenhandedaccount of the composer’ — Choice (Current Reviews for Academic Libraries)

Yale University Press · now in paperback RRP: £14.99

Sibelius ReflectionsEdward Clark

An inspirational collection of essays from Edward Clark, President of the UKSibelius Society, the personal response of the auth or to the music of Si belius.

Price £8 (including postage and packing)Please order your copy from Edward Clark,

51 Vernon Avenue, Wimbledon, London SW20 8BNe-mail: [email protected]

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Sibelius Forum · www.sibelius.forumup.comFor those who have not yet joined the Sibelius Forum online, here’s a quick re-minder of the internet’s premium location for Sibelian gossip and opinion. It’sfree, fun, friendly and open to all.

Sibelius’s Gaunt Masterpiece: Two Recordings Compared

by Edward W. Clark

Isometimes wonder why I spend time listening to Sibelius’s Fourth Sym-phony. This is music that seems to go out of its way to offend our musicalsensibilities: hostile to a fault, austere, completely lacking in any nutri-

tional musical value. Well that’s what many people think, even today. AinoSibelius wrote after the première: ‘People averted our gaze, not knowingwhat to say.’ No wonder! What on earth did the first audience make of thesounds of the Fourth, coming after the wondrous melodies and ecstatic end-ings of the previous three symphonies?

Time has hardly tempered the general music lover’s view of the Fourth.John Bird, the actor, gave a good summary on Radio 3 recently after choosingthe finale to play: ‘Difficult. Difficult’. It remains a huge nut to crack. Unless,like me, you hear some of the most sublime music composed not only bySibelius but by anyone!

Two recently issued recordings confirm my view of the gigantic masteryof the Fourth in communicating the mysteries of humanity to anyone whocares to listen. They are readings by Leopold Stokowski and the PhiladelphiaOrchestra (recorded at a public concert in 1962) and Osmo Vänskä with hisMinnesota Orchestra in 2012. Needless to say, I cannot imagine two moredisparate views of this masterpiece. Both conductors have recorded theFourth before: Stokowski made the world première recording in 1932 andVänskä some fifteen years ago in Lahti.

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C D R E V I E W S

Sibelius: Symphony No. 6Debussy: Three Nocturnes; JeuxKölner Rundfunk-Sinfonie-Orchester · Hans RosbaudICA classics ICAC 5109

In the autumn of 2013, ICA Classics released historic broadcast performancesby the German conductor Hans Rosbaud (1895–1962) in accounts ofSibelius’s Sixth Symphony and music by Debussy. Rosbaud was one of thefew champions of Sibelius’s music in Germany up to and in the aftermath ofWorld War II. Karajan was the other prominent German Sibelian, becomingchief conductor of the Berlin Philharmonic in 1957. His Sibelius discographywas of course extensive. However it is worth remembering that EugenJochum also recorded some Sibelius in the 1950s, including a fine Night Rideand Sunrise. Also Furtwängler and Klemperer programmed the Finnish mas-ter on occasions from the 1920s in Germany. But undoubtedly Karajan andRosbaud were the two prominent Sibelians in Germany at this time…

Rosbaud’s account of Sibelius’s Sixth Symphony given more than sixtyyears ago will undoubtedly take its place in the pantheon of great classic per-formances, for both orchestra and conductor are in total service of the music.Also included on the disc are compelling accounts of Claude Debussy’s ThreeNocturnes and Jeux, again in very acceptable sound. Recommended.

Peter Frankland

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Sibelius: Symphonies Nos 2 ab & 5 ab; Karelia Suiteab

Violin Concertob c d; Tapiolab c ; Romance in C major e; The Swan of Tuonela e; Lemminkäinen’s Return f

aSinfonia of London · bTauno Hannikainen, conductorcLondon Symphony Orchestra · dTossy Spivakovsky, violineRoyal Philharmonic Orchestra / Anthony Collins, conductorf Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra / Sixten Ehrling, conductorMagdalen METCD 8024 (2 CDs)

Born in Jyväskylä, Tauno Hannikainen (1896–1968) came from one of thegreat Finnish musical families: he was the son of the composer Pekka JuhaniHannikainen, and brother of the pianist Ilmari Hannikainen and the conductorVäinö Hannikainen… The present performances date from 1959 and are allin stereo, although there are significant differences between the three originalsource discs… Musically they show a conductor whose feeling for the idiomwas instinctive. A Gramophone review from 1973, quoted in the booklet,summarizes his approach very accurately and succinctly, calling Hannikainen‘a Sibelian of sound instinct and judgement whose readings are totally devoidof egocentric interpretative gestures or any hint of mannerism’. But at timesthese performances also show how much interpretative fashion has changedin the past fifty years – perhaps most clearly in the Fifth Symphony…

The present set was transferred from LPs (World Record Club pressings),and there is occasional surface noise – unlike on some earlier CD resissueswhich were taken from the master tapes. Nevertheless, it is more than an his-torical curiosity; the music-making has an authenticity and directness thatspeak eloquently across the generations.

Andrew G. Barnett

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Sibelius in Andalucia at Christmas

by Edward W. Clark

Atwo-week stay near to Malaga for Christmas was an exciting pros -pect, particularly with the UK weather forecast being so bad! TheMalaga Philharmonic would not be playing during my stay so ex-

pectations were for a music-free festive season. How wrong could I be?…So to the highlight of the mini-series – Sibelius’s mighty, emotional Sec-

ond Symphony. I confess my expectations of the Anda lucian Youth Orchestraunder the Venezuelan conductor Manuel Her nan dez-Silva were moderate but,hearing the brisk opening, my senses were fully engaged by the power andthrust achieved by the conductor and his totally committed young players.Everything gelled into a journey from anxious apprehension to great reliefin the joy of salvation at the very end…

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Selected Record ReleasesInformation co-ordinated by Ian Maxwell

Symphonies Nos 2 & 5; Tapiola; Violin Concerto*; Karelia SuiteSinfonia of London / London Symphony Orchestra / Tauno HannikainenTossy Spivakovsky, violin (rec. 1959)The Swan of Tuonela; Romance in C majorRoyal Philharmonic Orchestra / Anthony Collins (rec. 1957)Lemminkäinen’s ReturnSwedish Radio Symphony Orchestra / Sixten Ehrling (rec. 1952)Magdalen METCD 8024 (2 CDs, bargain price)

Symphony No. 4 (+Ives, Wagner)Boston Symphony Orchestra / Michael Tilson ThomasICA Classics ICAD 5111 (DVD, full price)

Valse triste (+concert)Aldo Ciccolini, pianoLa Dolce Vita LDV 13 (full price)

Valse triste (+concert)Alexandre Tharaud, pianoErato 9341372 (full price)

Song RecitalIllalle; Den judiska flickans sång; Six Songs, Op. 36 (Svarta rosor; Men min fågel märksdock icke; Bollspelet vid Trianon; Säv, säv, susa; Mars snön; Demanten på Marssnön); Jag är ett träd; Näcken; Five Songs, Op. 37 (Den första kyssen; Lasse liten; Soluppgång;Var det en dröm?; Flickan kom ifrån sin älsklings möte); Vem styrde hit din väg?; Norden; Six Songs, Op. 50 (Lenzgesang; Sehnsucht; Im Feld ein Mädchen singt; Aus banger Brust;Die stille Stadt; Rosenlied); Våren flyktar hastigt; Under strandens granar Katarina Karnéus, mezzo-soprano / Julius Drake, pianoHyperion Helios CDH 55471 (reissue, low price)

‘Mirrors’ – Songs and Instrumental Works (+Saariaho)Romance in F major for cello and piano; Komm herbei, Tod; Im Feld ein Mädchen singt;Aus banger Brust; Die stille Stadt; Granen; Till trånaden; Svarta rosor; Den första kyssen;Var det en dröm?; Flickan kom ifrån sin älsklings möte; Tanken (duet)Katharina Persicke, soprano; Henryk Böhm, baritone; Pauliina Tukiainen, piano; Frank-Michael Guthmann, celloCoviello Classics 51308

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Subscriptions 2014We should like to thank all of our members for their support over the pastyear, and we look forward to having you with us throughout 2014. Your en-thusiasm and commitment are the life force of our Society… but we also relyon you to supply its life blood in the form of subscriptions, and our annualsubscription falls due this month (January):

· UK Members £15 (£20 for combined spouses)

· Overseas Members £20 (UK bankers draft or cheque only)

Drafts/cheques payable to the UK Sibelius Society.

A subscription form is enclosed with this Newsletter. Please return it to theSociety’s President with your remittance: Edward Clark, 51 Vernon Avenue, Wimbledon, London SW20 8BN

www.sibeliussociety.info

All membership enquiries and subscriptions should be addressed to:Edward W. Clark51 Vernon Avenue, Wimbledon, London SW20 8BNe-mail: [email protected]

Newsletter correspondence should be addressed toAndrew G. Barnett, 6 Chichester Drive West, Saltdean, Brighton, Sussex BN2 8SH.e-mail: [email protected] (new address!)

Articles and letters may be shortened for publication and do not necessarily reflect the So-ciety’s or the Editor’s own views. Some items in this News letter are collated from the find-ings and opinions of several members. If you have any views on recent releases which youwould like to have incorporated into the panel’s verdicts, please submit them without delayto the Editor at the Saltdean address above.

The Society cannot accept any responsibility for the accuracy or otherwise of any informa-tion contained herein and the views and opinions published in this Newsletter are those ofthe contributors and have been expressed in good faith. The Society will not be liable forany reliance placed on the contents hereof.

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uk sibelius society newsletter no. 74

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