The high profile enjoyed by the Oslo Philharmonic and the Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra whose Sibelius cycle made so strong an impression in London earlier this year should not obscure the excellence of the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic. Their tradition is long and at their best they produce a finely integrated, cultured sonority that can hold its own with most of their Nordic rivals. Their new Sibelius recording with Paavo Jarvi finds them in better shape than in the Nielsen cycle they recorded with Rozhdestvensky on Chandos.
Nightride and Sunrise is one of the most neglected and underrated of the Sibelius tone-poems but it is admittedly not easy to bring off in performance. Paavo Jarvi’s reading is imaginatively shaped though some listeners may find him a little too fussy at times: his attention to dynamic markings is perhaps too conspicuous, particularly at the beginning of the sunrise section. Both Rattle and the recently reissued Jochum DG version allow the music to unfold with a more natural flow. But too much care over details is better than too little. I like Jarvi’s steady and spacious tempo in Luonnotar, which comes hot on the heels of Jarvi pere and the Gothenburg orchestra. It is splendidly atmospheric, though in terms of characterization Solveig Kringelborn is somewhat less impressive than Soile Isokoski.
The major work here is the Legends, Op. 22, of which Paavo Jarvi gives us a thoroughly committed account with a very gutsy and exciting “Lemminkainen’s return”, albeit without entirely banishing memories of the celebrated 1937 Beecham version which captured the hell-for-leather intensity of the ride so thrillingly. But “The swan of Tuonela” is beautifully done, with some eloquent and imaginative playing from the cor anglais, and there is no lack of atmosphere in the first and third Legends. Jensen’s pioneering Decca disc (11/53), which has yet to be reissued on CD, had greater concentration and intensity in “Lemminkainen in Tuonela”. I would not necessarily prefer this newcomer to the recent version by Segerstam or Ormandy’s classic set on EMI, but it can be recommended alongside them.
The recording is very good though it has less sense of depth and a less luxuriant bloom than the recent Chandos Nielsen discs. However, the overall picture is bright, well-detailed and very present, and the acoustic ambience is well captured. A welcome addition to the Sibelius discography.'