What a wonderful disc this is, this works on all sorts of levels for me, Sibelius discs of his shorter works on disc are available aplenty, but so many seem poorly programmed, there's discs of his most 'famous' pieces [especially 'Finlandia'], and a lot of these just seem the same programme, this was is excitingly different, with a good mix of famous and lesser known, i'm thankful for getting to know 'The Bard' because of this recording, Sibelius was quite a master at the Tone Poem, and his later Symphonies prove that he was having a hard time with composing in the Symphonic form, but he seemed ideal for these smaller forms, this disc has the added worth of a good quantity of music [71 minutes].
Neeme Jarvi is Estonian, he's now 75, and he recorded this disc not as a programme, but this was culled from a number of other discs, so the recording dates are 1992-1995, the booklet front cover [photo by Sally Mayman] is absolutely fantastic, a black & white shot of a flooded birch grove i guess, very very symmetrical, a sparse shot of no real focus, but almost endless tree trunks, the symmetry works both horizontal and vertical, and for once the obtrusive DG logo is actually a blessing, creating a wonderful dash of colour, the lettering very neatly done, a great visual product.
In playing this disc today, i was thrilled by 'En saga', a great piece with some very inventive rhythms, but even more i was just stunned by the closing piece 'Tapiola', it the longest thing on this disc [just over 20 minutes], a dark and foreboding piece, when Sibelius wrote it, he gave a clue to the psyche of the piece in these words,
Here's Jarvi conducting 'Tapiola' on YouTube.
Widespread they stand, the Northland's dusky forests
Ancient, mysterious, brooding savage dreams
Within them dwells the forest's mighty God
And wood sprites in the gloom weave magic secrets
Here's Jarvi conducting 'Tapiola' on YouTube.
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