Sibelius - Symphony 2 [Ashkenazy-Philharmonia Orchestra]I must admit that i don't know Sibelius's Symphonies equally, the Second is by far my favourite, and the most listened to, in fact i probably play the Second more than the rest of the Symphonies put together!, i know the early works better than the later works, but apart from the Second, the Violin Concerto, and the Tone Poems, Sibelius is still very much an unploughed field for me.
Vladimir Ashkenazy is a Russian Conductor and Pianist, and he has one foot in each world, still recording solo piano works [his Bach recordings recently for example], but i guess mainly he's a Conductor, he was born in 1937, and he made this Sibelius Symphony cycle in the early to mid eighties, this recording of the Second Symphony was actually made right at the end of 1979, i guess it was the first to be recorded, the front cover is strange, a picture of the young Sibelius floating downstream!.
Well, on this time playing, i certainly enjoyed all of this Symphony, there's a great architecture here, a great 'symphonic whole', later Symphonies just wouldn't hit the mark the way this does, for me, this is Sibelius's zenith in this medium, and it has a wonderful final movement, where all the threads and ideas that Sibelius has developed, all come together in one great finale / final knot, but on the inside i feel that untying of that knot, and a wonderful release.
It's the last 4 minutes that i find especially thrilling, maybe i can give a synopsis of what's going on here,
10:54, there's a slow build up on the strings, while at the same time the woodwind constantly rise and fall, as the whole thing gets more intense, it's quite repetitive for nearly 100 seconds, and mainly only in volume does it get louder.
12:30, deep brass figures turn into more of a fanfare type of brass.
12:34, the shimmering strings start to come in.
12:49, the deep string pizzicato begins.
13:01, the shimmering strings reach their zenith, like millions of flickering stars, a lovely effect.
13:13, the finale build up starts.
13:25, the gorgeous fanfare trumpets / brass begin to announce the end.
13;55, the trumpets / brass get louder as they approach the end.
14:08, the final drum roll starts, low at first but getting louder towards the end.
14:25