Sibelius Orchestral Works (CD Review)

by Ryan Ross

Symphony No. 5, Op. 82; Two Serenades, Op. 69; Two Serious Melodies, Op. 77; Suite from Swanwhite, Op. 54. Christian Tetzlaff, violinist; Nicholas Collon, conductor; Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra. Ondine ODE 1468-2

Antti Häyrynen’s liner notes describe the overall mood of Sibelius’s Fifth Symphony as “lucid, diatonic.” Whether or not one fully agrees, his remark is at least a very good clue to this new performance. On one level it is easy to admire the precision and clarity achieved by Nicholas Collin and the FRSO, particularly compared to other recent interpretations that I won’t mention here. There is definitely some “snap” to this Sibelius 5, with particularly exciting stretches at the end of the first movement and the famous beginning of the finale. (The former made me want to cheer during my first listen-through!) 

And yet, good as it undeniably is, there is something missing. Just what that something may be is not easy to explain past a certain point. I guess I’ll come at this from another side and confess that I have been reading (and re-reading) a great deal of musicological literature on Sibelius and his music during the past year or more. Much of this literature presents the academic view that Sibelius, far from being merely a nationalist curiosity, was as good at creating integrated musical structures as anyone, and deserves more credit for doing so. Put another way, a certain kind of scholar always seems to be looking for ways to emphasize Sibelius’s formalist credentials. Labels such as “classical” and even “modernist” are frequently wielded in such discourse. 

Why do I mention this, and what does it have to do with the present recording? I’ll be blunt: I think Collon and the FRSO undersell Sibelius’s Romantic spirit, much like the music scholars who tend to downplay it in the Finnish Master’s later works. I don’t think Sibelius ever lost his strong Romantic sensibility, even in his most concentrated formal experiments. I’m reminded of a remark he made about his Sixth Symphony: “You may analyze it and explain it theoretically. You may find that there are several interesting things going on. But most people forget that it is, after all, a poem.” What I’m missing in this Fifth, then, is more feeling for the poetic. I can hear everything in a wonderfully clear way, and I am more aware of the moving parts than in most other performances. But in terms of the work’s famous grandeur, I’m often a touch (or more) underwhelmed. 

One of the ways in which this is most tangible lies with the execution of ostinati and other repeated-figure passages. Again, these are wonderfully transparent and precise, but perhaps to the degree of sounding mechanical at times. The problem is even more noticeable in the Swanwhite Suite, one of Sibelius’s most magical scores. Collon and Company perform the opening number (“The Peacock”) very slowly, and with the repeated string figures sounding too “chugga chugga”-like (if my readers will forgive the crude descriptor). The other movements fare a bit better, but I am still missing a sense of fantasy and fairy tale, especially in “The Harp.” While I consider the Fifth Symphony performance here to be good despite my misgivings, I suggest with some sense of urgency that newcomers opt for a more ideal Swanwhite Suite. They might start with the old standby of Järvi and the Gothenburg Symphony (BIS CD-359). 

 The best-rendered items on this recording are for me easily the Two Serenades and Two Serious Melodies, offered up with solo violinist Christian Tetzlaff. Here Collon and Co.’s predilection for lucidity as an aesthetic virtue meshes well with Tetzlaff’s gentle expressiveness. This is an ideal combination that stands up well against any of the competition I have heard. In sum, we have a very good Fifth Symphony (even if it isn’t quite my ideal Fifth), excellent miniatures, and a Swanwhite Suite I feel is bettered elsewhere. Worth buying? On balance, yes.