SIBELIUS Symphonies 6 & 7
View record and artist detailsRecord and Artist Details
Composer or Director: Jean Sibelius
Genre:
Orchestral
Magazine Review Date: 04/2014
Media Format: CD or Download
Media Runtime: 70
Mastering:
DDD
Catalogue Number: CD1004
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 |
Author: Edward Seckerson
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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