{"id":1305,"date":"2003-09-20T05:40:52","date_gmt":"2003-09-20T03:40:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/erso.ee\/plaadid\/jean-sibelius-cantatas-paavo-jarvi-virgin-classics-2003\/"},"modified":"2003-09-27T08:03:43","modified_gmt":"2003-09-27T06:03:43","slug":"jean-sibelius-cantatas-paavo-jarvi-virgin-classics-2003","status":"publish","type":"plaadid","link":"https:\/\/erso.ee\/en\/records\/jean-sibelius-cantatas-paavo-jarvi-virgin-classics-2003\/","title":{"rendered":"JEAN SIBELIUS – Cantatas. Paavo J\u00e4rvi. Virgin Classics 2003"},"content":{"rendered":"

Virgin Classics 2003
\n<\/strong>Virgin 5455612<\/p>\n

\"Grammy<\/p>\n

Estonian National Symphony Orchestra
\nEllerhein Girls’ Choir
\nEstonian National Male Chor
\nConductor PAAVO J\u00c4RVI<\/p>\n

Jean Sibelius (1865\u20131957)<\/h3>\n

1. Sn\u00f6frid, Op. 29 (1900) (11:23)
\n2. Oma maa, Op. 92 (1918) (11:55)
\n3. V\u00e4in\u00f6n virsi, Op. 110 (1926) (8:42)
\n4. Sandels, Op. 28 (1898, rev. 1915) (9:09)
\n5. Maan virsi, Op. 95 (1918) (7:41)
\n6. Laulu Lemmink\u00e4iselle, Op. 31 No. 1 (1896) (3.31)
\n7. Finlandia, Op. 26 (1899) (8:36)<\/p>\n

Total: 61:36<\/p>\n

REVIEWS<\/h1>\n

Sibelius wrote too little for most of us. Of such captivating and compelling quality are the major, repeatedly recorded, works that listeners will always be curious about the rest. Who knows \u2026 in due time some Sibelian academic of the 2030s may yet give us a speculative relaisation of the Eighth Symphony. Unthinkable? Impossible? I wonder.<\/p>\n

Looking through the Sibelius catalogue is rather like browsing the Nielsen lists. Among the tone poems, concertos (one in the case of Sibelius) and symphonies are dotted various cantatas and celebratory choral works. These occasional pieces were for many years disregarded. Now come opportunities to assess them for the first time. Very welcome too.
\nNielsen’s choral-orchestral pieces largely await exploration by the record companies. Sibelius has been more fortunate. Thor Johnson and the Cincinnati orchestra recorded The Origin of Fire in the days of LP (Var\u00e8se-Sarabande VC81941, reissued as late as circa 1977). Two cantatas, The Origin of Fire and Oma Maa were added as makeweights to Berglund’s second recording (1980s) of Kullervo with the Helsinki Philharmonic. The Bis Sibelius Edition (which has recently reached its 51st volume) has included such works but they are scattered here and there across a variety of discs and couplings.<\/p>\n

Sn\u00f6frid pleasingly sets a Swedish text by Viktor Rydberg for female orator and mixed choir. Its saga subject has temptress trolls, a storm (evoked in the first few minutes) and a defiant hero. The women’s voices have a most agreeable recorded presence. Just before they enter we have a startlingly familiar gesture from the Second Symphony. The pleasing immediacy of the choir also registers in the lovely roundedness of the Oma Maa which is concerned with evocations of Midnight Sun not nationalistic bombast. The music becomes increasingly devotional with its invocation and praise centring on nature and the sun. If you think in terms of the glowing choral version of Rakastava with an added vibrancy then you are not far amiss in understanding this work. V\u00e4in\u00f6n virsi is a late work piece but you must not expect anything revolutionary. Here Sibelius keys back into the idiom he had in the 1890s. This is related to the Karelia music. The subject is from the Kalevala where V\u00e4in\u00e4m\u00f6inen prays to Jumala, the Creatrix, for protection, strength and harvests. This is more dramatically drawn than Oma Maa and in the background the clink of V\u00e4in\u00e4m\u00f6inen’s forge can be heard as the singing rises to the glowing sun-dazzled heights. Maan Virsi is for mixed chorus (not as described in the booklet and insert). The zither-like kantele is evoked by the pizzicato writing. A relaxed serenade at 3.51 for orchestra delightful ushers in the returning choir. This is classically poised Sibelius rising to the best structured climactic statement on the disc (5.48).<\/p>\n

Sandels was composed in Berlin. It is named after a General Sandels (1764-1831). The music starts out as jaunty storytelling with jolly clarinet solo work (tr. 4, 2.49) but from 4.38 Sibelius brings his sharply-focused imagination to bear on the battle scene with many memorable orchestral touches. It ends with brass \u2018barks\u2019 reminiscent of Finlandia. Just occasionally in this work his choral writing can veer into school song jollity but usually the treatment swerves back into fresher material before too much damage is done. Both Sn\u00f6frid and Sandels are termed ‘improvisations’. Laulu Lemmink\u00e4iselle is robustly cheerful and strongly rhythmic – well within the stirring Scandinavian male choral tradition and related in style to the Karelia’s alla marcia. Finally comes the choral (men’s voices) version of Finlandia. This is stirringly done though I have heard more threateningly imposing and rapped out brass playing – for example on the Stein (Decca) and Barbirolli (EMI Classics) readings of the orchestral version.<\/p>\n

The disc is very well documented with full texts in Finnish and with side by side translations into German, French and English.<\/p>\n

Sibelians will welcome this collection as might choral conductors looking for ideas for a short concert appetiser (none of these pieces are longer than 12 minutes). Sibelians will want to hear the battle scene in Sandels, the rounded invocation of Oma Maa and the superbly structured Maan Virsi.<\/p>\n

(Rob Barnett.\u00a0www.musicweb.uk.net<\/a>)
\nRead<\/a><\/p>\n

\n

D\u2019un catalogue important, allant au-del\u00e0 de l\u2019opus 100, que conna\u00eet-on r\u00e9ellement chez Sibelius? Les symphonies, quelques po\u00e8mes symphoniques, le Concerto pour violon, peut-\u00eatre le Quatuor \u00abVoces intim\u00e6\u00bb et\u2026 la Valse triste. Mais, en raison sans doute de l\u2019obstacle de la langue, les m\u00e9lodies ou les pi\u00e8ces chorales n\u2019ont pas encore perc\u00e9. Or, rien dans l\u2019\u0153uvre du compositeur finlandais ne m\u00e9rite d\u2019\u00eatre n\u00e9glig\u00e9, pour la simple raison que rien n\u2019y est n\u00e9glig\u00e9. Ce disque sortant des sentiers battus, conduit par Paavo J\u00e4rvi avec la rigueur qu\u2019on lui conna\u00eet, le confirme \u00e0 nouveau et m\u00e9rite donc d\u2019\u00eatre salu\u00e9. D\u2019une grande coh\u00e9rence, il pr\u00e9sente sept \u0153uvres pour ch\u0153ur et orchestre \u00e0 th\u00e9matique nationale, voire patriotique, \u00e9crites par Sibelius entre 1896 et 1926, c\u2019est-\u00e0-dire aussi bien avant que pendant ou apr\u00e8s l\u2019ind\u00e9pendance, sur des textes en su\u00e9dois ou en finlandais.<\/p>\n

Ce qui frappe tout au long de cette heure de musique, c\u2019est l\u2019expression d\u2019une personnalit\u00e9 suffisamment forte et originale pour que ces pi\u00e8ces ne versent jamais dans le pompi\u00e9risme, la ferveur compass\u00e9e ou la statufication, car toutes ces partitions, \u00e0 un moment ou \u00e0 un autre, sont transfigur\u00e9es par les fulgurances harmoniques (Sandels, sous-titr\u00e9 \u00abimprovisation\u00bb pour ch\u0153ur d\u2019hommes et orchestre) ou les \u00e9ruptions dramatiques (Le Cantique de V\u00e4ino) qui sont le propre de Sibelius.<\/p>\n

Si la th\u00e9matique reste fid\u00e8le \u00e0 l\u2019une de ses grandes sources d\u2019inspiration \u2013 capitale pour la culture finlandaise \u2013 le Kalevala, et plus particuli\u00e8rement le personnage de Lemmink\u00e4inen, on assiste \u00e9galement, au fil de ce programme, \u00e0 l\u2019\u00e9volution d\u2019une personnalit\u00e9, depuis l\u2019influence wagn\u00e9rienne (Chant de Lemmink\u00e4inen, entre Siegfried et\u2026 Alexandre Nevski, mais aussi le c\u00e9l\u00e8bre Finlandia, dans une version plus tardive faisant appel \u00e0 un ch\u0153ur d\u2019hommes) ou straussienne (Sn\u00f6frid, autre \u00abimprovisation\u00bb) remarquablement assimil\u00e9e, jusqu\u2019\u00e0 une tonalit\u00e9 plus hymnique et recueillie, voire mystique (Notre pays, Le Cantique du pays), une fois d\u00e9pass\u00e9 le stade de l\u2019aspiration \u00e0 l\u2019ind\u00e9pendance.<\/p>\n

La notice compl\u00e8te et pr\u00e9cise de Pierre Gervasoni (traduite en anglais et en allemand) constitue en outre une excellente introduction \u00e0 cet univers.<\/p>\n

(Simon Corley.\u00a0www.concertonet.com<\/a>)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Virgin Classics 2003 Virgin 5455612 Estonian National Symphony Orchestra Ellerhein Girls’ Choir Estonian National Male Chor Conductor PAAVO J\u00c4RVI Jean Sibelius (1865\u20131957) 1. Sn\u00f6frid, Op. 29 (1900) (11:23) 2. Oma maa, Op. 92 (1918) (11:55) 3. V\u00e4in\u00f6n virsi, Op. 110 (1926) (8:42) 4. Sandels, Op. 28 (1898, rev. 1915) (9:09) 5. Maan virsi, Op. 95 […]\n","protected":false},"featured_media":1078,"template":"","class_list":["post-1305","plaadid","type-plaadid","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/erso.ee\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/plaadid\/1305","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/erso.ee\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/plaadid"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/erso.ee\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/plaadid"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/erso.ee\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1078"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/erso.ee\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1305"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}