Sibelius - Orchestral Works [Jarvi-Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra]

One of the treasured Sibelius 'recital' discs in my collection, this fills gaps that otherwise take many discs, the two well known pieces are Valse Triste and Tapiola, and both are welcome here, but it's the other stuff which is so enlightening, especially Scene With Cranes and The Bard, Sibelius has some lesser known little masterpieces if you look beyond his Violin Concerto and the Symphonies, this makes me want to explore him even more, this is a regular little appearer in my Blog [8th July 2010 & 2nd December 2012].

Neeme Jarvi is Estonian, he's now 77, this recording was made in made in 1992-1995, i guess a compilation of a number of other discs, the front cover shows a bleak water / forest-scape [photo by Sally Mayman], all black & white and minimalist, and yet superbly symmetrical, for once the DG yellow logo gives a great splash of colour, and actually adds to the picture, one of the best front cover pictures i've seen, and of course it certainly goes well with Tapiola, with a mysterious brooding quality.

Well like i said above it was tracks 1-2, 4 & 7 that were the best, so i guess this time i would like to explain my newfound love of Scene With Cranes, it's a mini masterpiece, starts with quiet high strings, very endearing, but then is pierced with six cries of the mystical cranes [1:15-2:04], represented by the clarinets, piercing and out of tune of sorts, the music returns to the beginning and starts up again, in the second part it sounds like the tremolos of a solo viola [3:25+], and ends gently, it's short at five minutes, but it packs an atmospheric punch, i'm glad i got to know this today.

Here's Segerstam playing Scene With Cranes on YouTube.

Dvorak - Symphonic Poems [Jarvi-Scottish National Orchestra] 

I listened to these two discs over two days, disc one yesterday, and disc two today, it's amazing how ahead of his time Dvorak was, and it's a wonder why more Composers don't write 'stories without words', some of these Poems are quite long [nearly half an hour], and it's a little hard to fit the story to what's happening in the music, maybe some cue points would help, these Symphonic Poems are ingenious, throughout the music we find certain instruments assigned to certain characters, the bass clarinet to the Noon Witch for example, or certain musical motifs to certain actions, the more you listen to the music, the more you can follow the storyline, but even without knowing the stories at all, it's still great music that makes sense, it's like film music separated from the film, it can still stand up to musical satisfaction without the visual prop, and Dvorak writing music that doesn't need a four movement model like the Symphony does, casts his musical ideas all in one piece of music, these 'stories' are great.

Neeme Jarvi is Estonian, he's now 75 and lives in America, he made these recordings separately for individual discs coupled with a Symphony apiece, but they make a great two disc boxed set here, so these recordings were made between 1986-1987, the front cover artwork is by Clare Melinsky, again each of the four separate illustrations came with the individual discs, but they make a nice quartet of colourful illustrations here, nicely boxed on a grey background, the lettering is well done, i like the symmetry of the whole thing.

Here's Tomas Netopil conducting The Golden Spinning Wheel on YouTube.

Sibelius - Orchestral Works [Jarvi-Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra] 

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,

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.

Smetana - Ma Vlast [Levine-Wiener Philharmoniker] 

Smetana's Ma Vlast is a mammoth work, lasting here over 76 minutes, you have to have a bit of time on your hands to indulge, a work so long can have a tendency to lose your attention if it's weak, but i never find this with Ma Vlast, though i do find that i can't listen to it all that often, in fact this is the very first time that Smetana appears in my Blog. 

James Levine is American, he's now 69, because of health problems he's been out of action for quite a while, he recorded this disc live in 1986, the front cover may look like a photo from afar, but really it's a painting by Rudolph Distler.

The second movement Vltava / Moldau is justly hailed as the cream of these six Symphonic Poems, it represents the main river running through the breadth of the Czech Republic, almost a biography of the river as it winds its way through the land, it lasts roughly 12 minutes, and of course has very different sections, a quicksilver flute opens things, with the odd pizzicato [0:00-0:57], Smetana seems to like intros like this, the strong string theme that follows is very nationalistic in flavour, and of course it has a lovely 'flow' to it, as you would realise a Symphonic Poem about a river would, when the brass come in, and the busy strings [2:48+] it makes a heady steam of almost a brass band, and Smetana can't resist a lively dance [3:44+], i just love the way Smetana uses a very gentle ethereal way with the music [5:24-7:36], high treble violins, though quiet, and flutes in the background, it's quite ghostly, and very soothing too, of course Smetana finished on a real forte, bringing in the main tune from the first movement, in resplendent glory [10:03+], the ending is nice, like waves going up and down, though growing quiet, the whole things is a lazy trip down the river, just letting the current take over. 

Here's Alexis Hauser conducting the second movement Vltava on YouTube.

Dvorak - Symphonic Poems [Kosler-Slovak Philharmonic Orchestra] 

Dvorak's Symphonic Poems have a tendency to be long, The Golden Spinning Wheel isn't far off half an hour long, but unlike say Tone Poems, which capture a mood and a visual feeling for something, Dvorak's works here are like plays without words, just the music to set the scene, there's 'dialogue' in the pages of the score as it were, sometimes i wish there were cue points in recordings to explain exactly what's going on and when, and with this double disc set, all the best works are conveniently brought together in one package, i played this early in my Blog [28th May 2010].

Zdenek Kosler was a Czech conductor, he died in 1995, he made these recordings in 1981 & 1982, now the front cover is a thing of rare beauty [by Vladimir Baca], a picture of a tree, the sun peeking through the branches, a nice study of the trunk, and it has that backlit quality to it, the lettering and logo add to the finished product, a superb visual statement.

On this listen i was wowed at how fantastic The Golden Spinning Wheel sounded,.

Here's Carlos Kalmar conducting The Golden Spinning Wheel on YouTube.

Bax - Symphonic Poems [Lloyd Jones-Royal Scottish National Orchestra] 

This was a great experience today, five of Bax's best known Symphonic Poems on a well filled disc, now i really can't believe that this disc represents Bax's debut in my Blog, how did that happen?, for me he's quite a major British Composer, Chandos really got the ball rolling in doing a major survey of all of his music, and i bought a fair number from that label [i thoroughly recommend the Third Symphony, it's a beauty], and now Naxos are getting in on the act, but his Symphonic Poems are almost like single symphonic movements, maybe easier to digest, in listening to this disc today, i marvelled at how much these sound like cast off's from Holst's Planets, at times there's almost direct quotations, one of the problems i've had with Bax's music in the past, is that he's wonderful with sonorities, his soundworld is very inventive, but his overall structure might leave something to be desired, as his creations wander all over the place, so it was good to sort these similar sounding Poems out into more individual pigeon holes, an enlightening experience.

David Lloyd-Jones is British, born in 1934, makes him 77, he recorded this disc in 1995-1996 and 2002, the front cover is so much better than the usual Naxos issues, a really nice winter picture, for once Naxos get it right.

I played this disc on 'random' on my player, and the first track to come up was 'The Happy Forest', a lively piece, reminded me very much of Jupiter from Holst's Planets, it's the shortest piece on the disc by far, and the one that impressed me the most, it has a jovial main theme [0:25+], a spritely tune that wouldn't go amiss on some old British film, very much fuelled by the woodwinds and brass, i guess sounding like a seafaring caper, but there's a gorgeous central section, it's introduced by a lazy flute and harp [3:18-3:41], and it develops into a truly languid, full of dreamy violins wallow, with a strumming harp in the background, the whole thing is repeated twice for good effect [3:42-7:40], and the main tune returns for a 2 minute blast, the ending is quite jokily done, finishing not on a big climax, but rather off handedly, once you put the piece under the microscope, you see some very interesting things.

Here's Lloyd-Jones conducting The Happy Forest on YouTube.

Bantock - Tone Poem 5 'The Witch Of Atlas' [Handley-Royal Philharmonic Orchestra] 

This is the second time this work appears in my Blog [15th March 2010], i got to play this disc walking through the park on the way to Church, the first two works are heavenly, why have they been so obscure for so long?, thanks to Vernon Handley, his efforts to get them better known have paid off in this recording, this is now my 4th best disc of all time, that's a phenomenal achievement for a Composer that's on the fringes!.

Vernon Handley is British, born in 1930, and died recently in 2008, he was a great champion of British music, and recorded a lot that others wouldn't touch, he made this recording in 1990, the front cover is a nice painting by Johan Dahl, called Morning After A Stormy Night.

As far as i'm concerned, this is the best work on the disc, it's tremendous, i don't know why it isn't recorded more often, and why it isn't famous, Hyperion have supposedly helped us in giving the work 9 cuing points, but for a 14 minute work, it would have been better to have given timings within the work in the booklet, these tracks just get in the way for me, it starts off very quiet and sparse, with barely audible tremolo strings whimpering, and a solo violin beseeching us [0:04+ track 6], with an oboe as a duet partner [0:20+ track 6], and later a bass clarinet [1:01+ track 6], it's a very atmospheric opening, conjuring up the scene nicely, the music swells [0:00 track 7], with a lovely note on the soft brass, with rippling harp, the lower woodwind are wonderfully mysterious [0:41+ track 7], the chattering piccolos / flutes are exciting [0:05-0:21 track 8], and right after comes the very best bit of the Tone Poem, the music swells into a full blooded string serenade [0:21+ track 8], it's just simply stunning and gorgeous!, chattering woodwinds / flute return [0:00+ track 9], after a more tempestuous section, the woodwinds have a marvellous decrescendo [0:43-1:11 track 12], starting at the piccolos, and moving down through the woodwinds to the bassoon, right at the end there's excellent use of the glockenspiel [1:25+ track 13], it's a work that is on the whole sparse and restrained, but full of atmosphere and effect.

Here's Vernon Handley conducting The Witch Of Atlas on YouTube, it's a fairly quiet level of volume, plus it starts very quiet too!.