Weber Overtures Philharmonia Orchestra, Neeme Järvi

For their latest album, Neeme Järvi and his Estonian National Symphony Orchestra present a delightful programme of lesser-known stage music from the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. The Overtures by Thomas, Auber and Boieldieu were all composed for works staged at the Opéra-Comique in Paris, and are wonderful examples of the period.

Neeme Järvi, with his children now as rivals, remains a busy star on the international conducting scene. Born in the Estonian capital of Tallinn, on June 7,1937, and brought up within the USSR's system for developing musical talent, Järvi studied percussion and conducting at the Tallinn Music School. He made his debut as a conductor at age 18. From 1955 to 1960 he pursued further studies at the Leningrad Conservatory, where his principal teachers were Nikolaï Rabinovich and Yevgeny Mravinsky.

In the 1980's, conductor Neeme Jarvi recorded the nine Dvorak symphonies with the Scottish National Symphony for Chandos. Most of the recordings have received favorable reviews, and some critics believe the cycle established Jarvi the interpreter of Dvorak's music. While I do not own all the recordings in the series and for that reason cannot compare it to other Dvorak recordings by Jarvi, I can say it is an excellent recording and one of my favorites in my collection (consisting of nearly 800 recordings). It begins with the tone poem "The Noon Witch." It is a musical telling of a story similar to "Hansel and Gretel" and Dvorak cleverly uses different instruments and themes to tell the story.

The Scottish National Orchestra with Neeme Jarvi has traversed the entire Dvorak symphonic oeuvre with wonderful success. Jarvi brings a sense of live and vitality to each symphony and the orchestra responds wonderfully. Jarvi's rendition of the 5th is, at least in my opinion, the most convincing in the series. The playing is spectacular; the Scottish National Orchestra brings a beauty of phrasing that complements this symphony well. Of equal power and beauty is the Water Goblin, which Jarvi undoubtedly champions. This is a wonderful CD. S

This two-disc set marks the beginning of a new project devoted to Tchaikovsky's ballet scores. We start the survey with the complete score of The Sleeping Beauty, recorded on SACD. Swan Lake and The Nutcracker will follow in 2013 and 2014, respectively. Tchaikovsky was approached by the Director of the Imperial Theatres in St Petersburg, Ivan Vsevolozhsky, in 1888 about a possible ballet adaptation of Charles Perrault's La Belle au bois dormant (The Sleeping Beauty).

Each instalment in Neeme Järvi’s Mahler cycle for Chandos has something new to say, but it’s hard to tell whether the insights of this First Symphony outweigh the exaggerations. Is there a valid point being made, for instance, about the first movement – mired in its ‘long sleep of winter’ for much longer than usual? Admittedly the awakening, when it finally comes after an emphatic developmental crisis, is massively impressive. The Scherzo’s central dream sequence drifts woozily, exaggerated even by Bernstein standards; the huntsman’s funeral is intriguingly brisk; and the finale lurches between magic and mannerism, capped by an almost ludicrous victory charge.

This disc, particularly well recorded in 1986, brings one of the best versions of the symphony coupled with an equally fine delivery of one of the finest for the late symphonic poems. Symphonic is the key word here as this symphony is the most non-nationalist symphony in the Dvorak canon and is without much doubt the most purely symphonic creation as well as being the most tautly argued and dramatic of the nine symphonies. Jarvi's style of conducting these symphonies is to take a straight view and play them very much as Dvorak wrote them. There are therefore no undue changes of tempi, either slowing down to underline climaxes or speeding up to create artificial excitement.

This is Reger at his most accessible. In both pieces there is plenty of atmosphere and colour. The Hiller Variations is possibly his greatest and most satisfying orchestral work and is indispensable. Reger was a prolific composer, and it has to be said not all that came from his pen was necessarily memorable. However, the two works on this disc are vintage Reger. He lived his short life as fast as he composed his music. His is a special and unique sound-world which offers great rewards to those who take the time to explore it. Radiant playing from the Concertgebouw under Jarvi and sound to match.

The sound on this 1986 BIS recording is simply (and unobtrusively) outstanding, and Neeme Jarvi makes the most of it in these relatively less-important Sibelius pieces. I say "relatively" because even in the earliest pieces here, "En Saga" and the Op. 25 Historical Scenes suite, Sibelius reveals himself as a master orchestrator: just as sound alone, with all the variety in texture and dynamics, this recording is a constant pleasure.