Sibelius Symphony 7

Conductor Nicholas Collon began as the new Chief Conductor of the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra in September 2021. This all-Sibelius programme, carefully selected by the conductor, is his debut album together with his new orchestra. Collon offers fresh and modern interpretation of Sibelius’ symphonic testament, the 7th Symphony, and brings to life the colour and drama of Sibelius’ incidental music for two plays – Maeterlinck’s famous Pelléas et Mélisande and the historic King Christian II.

Sibelius's Symphony No.3 was composed in 1907. It is the link between the romantic intensity of his first two symphonies and the more cold complexity of his later symphonies. Symphony No.7 was completed in 1924 and is notable for having only one movement. The Swan of Tuonela is a tone poem based on the Kalevala epic of Finnish mythology. The Leningrad Philharmonic Orchestra and Yevgeny Mravinsky pair these with Debussy's Nocturnes Nos.1 & 2.

A true specialist of his fellow countryman Jean Sibelius’ music, Paavo Berglund recorded no less than three complete symphony cycles for EMI/Finlandia! That makes him the most devoted Sibelius conductor of the whole discography. The first symphony Berglund ever put on record was Sibelius’ seventh, his musical testament and a pure concentrate of his musical genius. It is made available in a brand-new audio cut, and coupled with other late masterpieces such as Tapiola or The Oceanides.

The Munich Philharmonic and Sergiu Celibidache share an exceptional legacy. He started his work as principal conductor in 1979 and remained in this position for as long as 17 years. Sergiu Celibidache played an integral part in making the Munich Philharmonic what it is today: an orchestra of worldwide renown.

After the resounding success of Volume 1 (Gramophone Editor’s Choice, Preis der Deutschen Schallplattenkritik, Diapason d’Or, Choc de Classica, FFFF Télérama), the project to record the complete Sibelius symphonies continues with the Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra and Santtu-Matias Rouvali, whose career as a conductor is entering top gear: he has just been appointed Principal Conductor of the Philharmonia Orchestra in London. At the turn of the twentieth century, as Finland struggled to free itself from Russian rule, Sibelius and his wife faced several domestic dramas, including the loss of one of their daughters, Kirsti, to typhoid fever.

SOMM Recordings is thrilled to announce the first release on disc of the only known live recording of Sir Thomas Beecham conducting Sibelius’s Symphony No.1 with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra to mark the orchestra’s 75th anniversary. The disc has been curated by Tolansky, the original founder of the Music Performance Research Centre. The archive was created in 1987 to preserve the heritage of public performances which included among its collection the Sibelius First Symphony. In 2001 the archive was renamed Music Preserved and transferred to the Borthwick Institute at the University of York. The Symphony, together with Tolansky’s other discovery, Scènes historiques have been brilliantly restored by acclaimed engineer Lani Spahr.

The influential critic Karl Flodin commented after the première of Sibelius’ Second Symphony, 'A symphonic poem the like of Sibelius’ Second Symphony has never been heard before, it’s something rarely heard in the genre of modern symphony. The more you listen to this brilliant work, the more powerful its contours seem, the deeper its soul appears and the more striking become the clues which hint at an understanding of this composition'. Oehms Classics has found the perfect partners for this recording in Dmitrij Kitajenko and the Gürzenich Orchestra Cologne, whom have paired it delightfully with two short pieces by Edvard Grieg.

Thomas Søndergård's hybrid SACD of Jean Sibelius' Symphony No. 2 in D major and his Symphony No. 7 in C major is an audiophile showcase that presents two contrasting sides of the composer with optimal clarity. The comparatively lush orchestration of the Symphony No. 2 probably has never sounded better in any recorded format, and the multichannel reproduction of the BBC National Orchestra of Wales brings out its vibrant bass, velvety strings, and sumptuous winds in a resonant acoustic, all of which are essential ingredients in the young Sibelius' post-Romantic sound. Yet the Symphony No. 7 presents the sparer counterpoint and leaner textures of Sibelius' mature phase, so the recording brings out the transparency of the timbres, and the clean separation of parts gives an added spatial dimension. Søndergård's interpretations of both works are wholly sympathetic and masterful, and the orchestra plays with the commitment and vitality that make these symphonies compelling. One hopes this is the first installment of a Sibelius cycle, which would be a great addition to Linn's catalog. Highly recommended.

These four discs collect Leif Segerstam's second cycle of the symphonies of Sibelius. First issued by Ondine in the early years of the 21st century as separate discs filled out with symphonic poems, the symphonies are here condensed into a cold, hard block of eternity. Segerstam's first Sibelius cycle for Chandos in the early Nineties aimed both barrels at eternity, but with the Danish Radio Symphony Orchestra's colorful and dedicated but sometimes too cheerful playing, he didn't always hit it.