SIBELIUS Symphonies 6 & 7

Record and Artist Details

Composer or Director: Jean Sibelius

Genre:

Orchestral

Media Format: CD or Download

Media Runtime: 70

Mastering:

DDD

Catalogue Number: CD1004

CD1004. SIBELIUS Symphonies 6 & 7. Spano

Tracks:

Composition Artist Credit
Symphony No. 6 Jean Sibelius, Composer
Atlanta Symphony Orchestra
Jean Sibelius, Composer
Robert Spano, Conductor
Symphony No. 7 Jean Sibelius, Composer
Atlanta Symphony Orchestra
Jean Sibelius, Composer
The opening pages of the Sixth Symphony always sound to me like we’re looking at an illuminated manuscript – a mysterious polyphony that radiates light from within. Robert Spano and his Atlanta Symphony strings achieve that most effectively, only pulling us into some kind of ‘reality’ once the woodwind and bass-lines come into focus. It’s a well-sprung, well-honed and blended sound that Spano encourages throughout this highly original piece but it’s also very urbane, even plushy, and even the more elemental pages – like the momentary shadow passing over the first movement in string basses and horns or the light-catching and highly atmospheric heart of the second-movement Allegretto – sound and feel a touch cosmetic. The scherzo is also too heavy on its feet to fully convey its vivace spirit, its open-aired quality.

In the great Seventh Symphony one always felt with a conductor like the late Sir Colin Davis that the piece was constantly evolving from the bass-lines. Again the word ‘elemental’ conveys the feeling that this music must convey. Spano’s players make something very lovely (and very much akin to the opening of the Sixth) of the passage for solo strings leading to the first trombone invocation. But it feels crafted as opposed to evolved, sculpted as opposed to roughly hewn. The mighty arpeggiated wave of lower strings in the approach to the second climax is impressive and the climax itself resounding, but the intensity of the string chords in its wake stops short of awe-inspiring.

Tapiola should deliver that awe in spades – ‘ancient, mysterious, brooding savage dreams’ are Sibelius’s words. Spano certainly invokes a savage beauty, with flaring horns suggesting the wrath of the forest god himself and a ppp of eerie calm before the ill wind sweeps in. But again, is there too much warmth in this well-engineered sound? Is the cragginess of the Sibelius sound truly captured here? Not for me. This is an excellent orchestra in very safe hands but we are in every sense a long way from Finland.

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