Sibelius: The Symphonies

List Price: $23.98
Our Price: $14.49
You Save: $9.49 (40%)
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
Buy Used: from $7.99 (click here)
Category: Music CD
See more CD details

CD Details

Music reviews of Sibelius: The Symphonies

Music Review: The Forgotten Member of the "Three S's"
Rating: 5 Stars

But where Schoenberg and Stravinsky were the highly publicized polar opposites of the tumultuous stylistic changes through the course of the 20th century, this was one march with which Sibelius did not feel obliged to keep step. The fact is, for every composer who proclaimed that the only way for music to go was forward (or in some other "interesting" direction), there was another composer who - without simply (and lazily) "re-writing" the Music of the Past - quietly and calmly insisted that the roots of the past were needed, for the shoots of future growth.

Indeed, Stravinsky himself (though in his characteristically flamboyant manner) drew attention to the importance of the past, in the many famous pastiches of his Neo-Classical period.

The musical development of Sibelius had little to do with this argument of Who the Future of Music Belongs to; indeed, for his own reasons, Sibelius was so disenchanted with the gap between what he felt his music ought to be doing, and what All the Musical Rage Was, that he struggled with an eighth symphony, put in a good deal of work on it, but at the last decided to destroy all trace of it.

My favorite among the Sibelius symphonies is probably the sixth. There is a directness, and an economy of expression, which taken together with the instrumental ingenuity which characterizes all of his work, plus an affinity I have for his musical materials - al of this make the sixth one of my favorite symphonies, by any composer.

Notwithstanding the occasional quibble with slight infelicities of detail, there is fine musicianship which carries most of the symphonies in this set. I find no particular disappointments in the sixth and seventh, and much to the contrary, I find these to be particularly convincing performances. I think that Maazel's muscular, at times brisk, approach to Sibelius' work is truer to the composer's spirit than is the Ormandy whoosh. Ironic that a fellow reviewer should mention Ormandy, as we do have an Ormandy recording of the Sibelius second; for the most part, I far prefer Maazel on this set.

It is possible that more people are talking about the Mahler symphonies, and that more conductors are taking up more orchestral time with rehearsing and performing the Mahler symphonies; but apart from this superficial sense, there is no case to be made for Mahler's work "replacing" Sibelius'. Mahler's work is easier to follow, and often has a maudlin, sentimental character with which it is easier for the average listener to "identify"; but Sibelius' music is well made, and uses the orchestra for the incredibly subtle and expressive macro-instrument which it is. Sibelius writes for the orchestra in a manner which enables a conductor to lead, and an orchestra to play, without any need for a medium to seek the composer out in a crystal ball to ask what he meant, really, by writing such-and-so a passage.

Sibelius is a great antidote to Mahler, for his work demonstrates that music can be exciting and emotional, without being antisocial and narcissistic. There is something lastingly wholesome about Sibelius, and inescapably morbid about Mahler.

The Great Pendulum will turn again, and Mahler will be a footnote; and Sibelius will be the magnificent saga, seemingly rough-hewn, yet in fact carefully shaped and marvellously balanced.

Description of Sibelius: The Symphonies

Classical CDs

• Music > Styles