Est 1923

SIBELIUS Songs

Record and Artist Details

Composer or Director: Jean Sibelius

Genre:

Vocal

Label: Alba

Media Format: CD or Download

Media Runtime: 70

Mastering:

DDD

Catalogue Number: ABCD384

ABCD384. SIBELIUS Songs

Tracks:

Composition Artist Credit
(The) Thought (Tanken) Jean Sibelius, Composer
Jean Sibelius, Composer
Kristian Attila, Piano
Pia Freund, Soprano
Tommi Hakala, Baritone
(7) Songs, Movement: To evening (1898: wds. A. V. Forsman-Koskimies) Jean Sibelius, Composer
Jean Sibelius, Composer
Kristian Attila, Piano
Pia Freund, Soprano
Tommi Hakala, Baritone
(6) Songs, Movement: Who has brought you here? Jean Sibelius, Composer
Jean Sibelius, Composer
Kristian Attila, Piano
Pia Freund, Soprano
Tommi Hakala, Baritone
(6) Songs, Movement: No. 3, Tennis at Trianon (wds. Fröding) Jean Sibelius, Composer
Jean Sibelius, Composer
Kristian Attila, Piano
Pia Freund, Soprano
Tommi Hakala, Baritone
(7) Songs, Movement: 'Neath the fir trees Jean Sibelius, Composer
Jean Sibelius, Composer
Kristian Attila, Piano
Pia Freund, Soprano
Tommi Hakala, Baritone
(6) Songs, Movement: The kiss (wds. Rydberg: 1915) Jean Sibelius, Composer
Jean Sibelius, Composer
Kristian Attila, Piano
Pia Freund, Soprano
Tommi Hakala, Baritone
(7) Songs, Movement: The heart's morning Jean Sibelius, Composer
Jean Sibelius, Composer
Kristian Attila, Piano
Pia Freund, Soprano
Tommi Hakala, Baritone
(5) Songs, Movement: No. 1, Den första kyssen (The first kiss) (wds. Runeberg) Jean Sibelius, Composer
Jean Sibelius, Composer
Kristian Attila, Piano
Pia Freund, Soprano
Tommi Hakala, Baritone
(5) Songs, Movement: No. 2, Lasse liten (Little Lasse) (wds. Topelius) Jean Sibelius, Composer
Jean Sibelius, Composer
Kristian Attila, Piano
Pia Freund, Soprano
Tommi Hakala, Baritone
(6) Songs, Movement: Summer night Jean Sibelius, Composer
Jean Sibelius, Composer
Kristian Attila, Piano
Pia Freund, Soprano
Tommi Hakala, Baritone
(7) Songs, Movement: Spring is flying Jean Sibelius, Composer
Jean Sibelius, Composer
Kristian Attila, Piano
Pia Freund, Soprano
Tommi Hakala, Baritone
(7) Songs, Movement: The dream Jean Sibelius, Composer
Jean Sibelius, Composer
Kristian Attila, Piano
Pia Freund, Soprano
Tommi Hakala, Baritone
(7) Songs, Movement: To Frigga Jean Sibelius, Composer
Jean Sibelius, Composer
Kristian Attila, Piano
Pia Freund, Soprano
Tommi Hakala, Baritone
(6) Songs, Movement: No. 4, Sigh, sedges, sigh (wds. Fröding) Jean Sibelius, Composer
Jean Sibelius, Composer
Kristian Attila, Piano
Pia Freund, Soprano
Tommi Hakala, Baritone
(7) Songs, Movement: The young hunter Jean Sibelius, Composer
Jean Sibelius, Composer
Kristian Attila, Piano
Pia Freund, Soprano
Tommi Hakala, Baritone
(6) Songs, Movement: The echo nymph (wds. Kyösti: 1915) Jean Sibelius, Composer
Jean Sibelius, Composer
Kristian Attila, Piano
Pia Freund, Soprano
Tommi Hakala, Baritone
(6) Songs, Movement: No. 6, The diamond on the March snow (wds. Wecksel Jean Sibelius, Composer
Jean Sibelius, Composer
Kristian Attila, Piano
Pia Freund, Soprano
Tommi Hakala, Baritone
(A) Song (En visa) Jean Sibelius, Composer
Jean Sibelius, Composer
Kristian Attila, Piano
Pia Freund, Soprano
Tommi Hakala, Baritone
(6) Songs, Movement: No. 1, Black roses (wds. Josephson) Jean Sibelius, Composer
Jean Sibelius, Composer
Kristian Attila, Piano
Pia Freund, Soprano
Tommi Hakala, Baritone
(7) Songs, Movement: Slumber (1894: wds. K. A. Tavaststjerna) Jean Sibelius, Composer
Jean Sibelius, Composer
Kristian Attila, Piano
Pia Freund, Soprano
Tommi Hakala, Baritone
(7) Songs, Movement: Astray (1894: wds. K. A. Tavaststjerna) Jean Sibelius, Composer
Jean Sibelius, Composer
Kristian Attila, Piano
Pia Freund, Soprano
Tommi Hakala, Baritone
(8) Songs, Movement: Slowly as the evening sun (wds. Tavaststjerna) Jean Sibelius, Composer
Jean Sibelius, Composer
Kristian Attila, Piano
Pia Freund, Soprano
Tommi Hakala, Baritone
(5) Songs, Movement: No. 5, Flickan kom från sin älsklings möte (The maiden's tryst) (wds. Runeberg) Jean Sibelius, Composer
Jean Sibelius, Composer
Kristian Attila, Piano
Pia Freund, Soprano
Tommi Hakala, Baritone
(6) Songs, Movement: Her message Jean Sibelius, Composer
Jean Sibelius, Composer
Kristian Attila, Piano
Pia Freund, Soprano
Tommi Hakala, Baritone
(6) Songs, Movement: No. 5, March song (wds. Wecksell) Jean Sibelius, Composer
Jean Sibelius, Composer
Kristian Attila, Piano
Pia Freund, Soprano
Tommi Hakala, Baritone
Small girls Jean Sibelius, Composer
Jean Sibelius, Composer
Kristian Attila, Piano
Pia Freund, Soprano
Tommi Hakala, Baritone
(5) Songs, Movement: In the night (wds. Rydberg) Jean Sibelius, Composer
Jean Sibelius, Composer
Kristian Attila, Piano
Pia Freund, Soprano
Tommi Hakala, Baritone
(6) Songs, Movement: And is there a thought? (wds. Tavaststjerna) Jean Sibelius, Composer
Jean Sibelius, Composer
Kristian Attila, Piano
Pia Freund, Soprano
Tommi Hakala, Baritone
(6) Songs, Movement: The north Jean Sibelius, Composer
Jean Sibelius, Composer
Kristian Attila, Piano
Pia Freund, Soprano
Tommi Hakala, Baritone
(5) Songs, Movement: No. 4, Var det en dröm? (Was it a dream?) (wds. Wecksell) Jean Sibelius, Composer
Jean Sibelius, Composer
Kristian Attila, Piano
Pia Freund, Soprano
Tommi Hakala, Baritone
This selection of about a third of Sibelius’s solo songs with piano confirms again the composer’s imaginatively wide selection of (Swedish) lyrics to set, ranging from the sometimes sad Romantic country-based imagery of poets such as Johan Ludwig Runeberg (‘Tanken’ or ‘Norden’, ‘The Thought’ or ‘The North’) and Gustaf Fröding’s ‘Säf, säf, susa’ (‘Sigh, sigh, sedges’) to the very urban 20th-century wit of Hjalmar Procopé’s ‘Små flickorna’. Here the ‘Young Girls’ of the title ‘walk with pert expressions / And flustered morning fringes / To the tapping of typewriters / And telephone greetings’ and a teasing, walking piano accompaniment.

The push and pull of this ‘watching all the girls go by’ showtime atmosphere is perfectly judged here by Pia Freund and Kristian Attila – although the joke oddly seems to escape a more heavily paced rival reading from Elisabeth Söderström on Decca’s collection of all the songs. The immediately following, and rather spooky, ‘I natten’ (‘In the Night’) confirms the good touch and dramatic sense of Attila, who makes as much of these often-criticised piano parts (surely their space is meant as a kit for interpreters to work with) as any modern pianist aside from Bengt Forsberg for Anne Sofie von Otter.

Generally speaking, Freund and Tommi Hakala here find an attractively intimate, chamber route into these songs, short-changing on neither enjoyment nor pain but without the more heart-on-sleeve approach of the justifiably famous Kim Borg 1950s DG recital or von Otter’s BIS collection. It’s hard to signal outright winners in a field that’s happily increasing in both number and interpretative range, but this new collection, with well-balanced natural recording and including many better-known items, stands up well alongside the two cited above and that by Katarina Karnéus.

ABCD384. SIBELIUS Songs

SIBELIUS Songs

(The) Thought (Tanken)

(7) Songs, Movement: To evening (1898: wds. A. V. Forsman-Koskimies)

(6) Songs, Movement: Who has brought you here?

(6) Songs, Movement: No. 3, Tennis at Trianon (wds. Fröding)

(7) Songs, Movement: 'Neath the fir trees

(6) Songs, Movement: The kiss (wds. Rydberg: 1915)

(7) Songs, Movement: The heart's morning

(5) Songs, Movement: No. 1, Den första kyssen (The first kiss) (wds. Runeberg)

(5) Songs, Movement: No. 2, Lasse liten (Little Lasse) (wds. Topelius)

(6) Songs, Movement: Summer night

(7) Songs, Movement: Spring is flying

(7) Songs, Movement: The dream

(7) Songs, Movement: To Frigga

(6) Songs, Movement: No. 4, Sigh, sedges, sigh (wds. Fröding)

(7) Songs, Movement: The young hunter

(6) Songs, Movement: The echo nymph (wds. Kyösti: 1915)

(6) Songs, Movement: No. 6, The diamond on the March snow (wds. Wecksel

(A) Song (En visa)

(6) Songs, Movement: No. 1, Black roses (wds. Josephson)

(7) Songs, Movement: Slumber (1894: wds. K. A. Tavaststjerna)

(7) Songs, Movement: Astray (1894: wds. K. A. Tavaststjerna)

(8) Songs, Movement: Slowly as the evening sun (wds. Tavaststjerna)

(5) Songs, Movement: No. 5, Flickan kom från sin älsklings möte (The maiden's tryst) (wds. Runeberg)

(6) Songs, Movement: Her message

(6) Songs, Movement: No. 5, March song (wds. Wecksell)

Small girls

(5) Songs, Movement: In the night (wds. Rydberg)

(6) Songs, Movement: And is there a thought? (wds. Tavaststjerna)

(6) Songs, Movement: The north

(5) Songs, Movement: No. 4, Var det en dröm? (Was it a dream?) (wds. Wecksell)

Selected Comparisons

Sibelius Songs, Vol. 3

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