Sibelius - Symphony 2 [Blomstedt-San Francisco Symphony]Sibelius's Second is my favourite Symphony from him, and at a guess i would say this Symphony features more in my Blog than the rest of his Symphonies put together, before and after it, Sibelius never hit the same heights, his later Symphonies dwindled down to short one movement things, and then thirty years of nothing!, this and his Violin Concerto are his greatest achievements.
Herbert Blomstedt is Swedish, now 84, he recorded this disc in 1991, my first exposure to Blomstedt was a Denon disc of Bruckners Seventh Symphony, very good indeed, i'm not sure what the front cover painting is meant to depict, in blue, white, and black, but i like it.
Here's my basic thoughts about Blomstedt's interpretation, the first movement especially seemed to be low key, Blomstedt seems to like to pause things, as if everything is in neat bite-sized pieces, and he emphasises these little nuggets, instead of fusing everything into a whole, the timpani sound backward, and i find in a work like this, you really need to have the drums sharp and meaningful, but they sound dull on this recording, one solution was to play the Symphony louder, and it was the fourth and last movement which was the best, and like Beethoven's Fifth Symphony, there's a glorious burst of power and glory, as the ending of the third movement erupts in a majestic explosion at the start of the fourth, with no break inbetween,
Here's Takeshi Ooi conducting the fourth movement on YouTube.
