Jean Sibelius - Lemminkäinen Suite; The Wood-Nymph (Osmo Vänskä)

Information

Composer: Jean Sibelius

• (01) Lemminkäinen Suite, Op. 22
• (05) Skogsrået (The Wood-Nymph), Op. 15

Lahti Symphony Orchestra

Osmo Vänskä, conductor

Date: 2014

Label: BIS
https://bis.se/label/bis/sibelius-lemminkainen-suite-the-wood-nymph

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Review

Four Legends (from the Kalevala), Lemminkäinen Suite, Lemminkäinen Legends – none of the popular titles for this tetralogy better Sibelius’s own albeit prosaic Symphonic Poems on Motifs from the Lemminkäinen Myth. Vänskä welds the four independent works into a coherent whole, a process helped immeasurably by his placing the brief The Swan of Tuonela second, forming a more dramatically and symphonically satisfying long-short-long-short profile, as Neeme Järvi among others did, while the otherwise excellent Segerstam and Sakari did not.

Vänskä’s previous recording of these works (featuring the original versions) in Lahti was bedevilled by technical issues; happily this new issue – set down between November 2006 and October 2007 – is free of these. As ever with Vänskä, the interpretation is full of incidental insights, the Lahti Symphony Orchestra’s playing captured in excellent sound. True, Segerstam’s Ondine recording with the Helsinki Philharmonic has richer, fuller sound, while Järvi’s wonderful Gothenburg issue still sounds fine, emphasising the drama above all. Play Segerstam with The Swan second and you have a near ideal account; the new Vänskä is a fine alternative, more searching than the other rivals listed below.

And it is paired with the best account yet of The Wood-Nymph, the tone-poem that forms the link between the Karelia music and Lemminkäinen. If it perhaps lacks the structural cohesion of En saga in its revised form it is still an impressive work. It’s grippingly played here, even more so than their original 1995 version. BIS’s sound, as ever, is superb.

-- Guy Rickards, Gramophone

More reviews:
ClassicsToday  ARTISTIC QUALITY: 9 / SOUND QUALITY: 10

https://www.classical-music.com/reviews/orchestral/sibelius-lemminkainen-suite-sept-14/

http://www.musicweb-international.com/classrev/2014/May14/Sibelius_Lemminkainen_BISSACD1745.htm

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Jean Sibelius (8 December 1865 – 20 September 1957) was a Finnish violinist and composer of the late Romantic and early-modern periods. His music contributed to the development of a feeling of national identity in Finland where he is now celebrated as the country's greatest composer. Sibelius is widely known for his seven symphonies, the violin concerto and the tone poems, especially Finlandia and the Karelia suite. Throughout his career, the composer found inspiration in nature and Nordic mythology. He almost completely stopped composing after 1920s and did not produce any large-scale works in his last thirty years.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jean_Sibelius

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Osmo Vänskä (born 28 February 1953, Sääminki, Finland) is a Finnish conductor, clarinetist and composer. He was an orchestral clarinetist of the Turku Philharmonic (1971-1976) and Helsinki Philharmonic (1977-1982), and during this time, studied conducting with Jorma Panula at the Sibelius Academy. Vänskä was chief conductor of the Lahti Symphony Orchestra (1988-2008), the Iceland Symphony Orchestra (1993-1996), and the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra (1996-2002). He has been music director of the Minnesota Orchestra since 2003. Vänskä has recorded extensively for the BIS label.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Osmo_Vänskä

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