Eugene Ormandy was the first to accommodate the Fourth and Fifth Symphonies together on one LP (Philips, 7/56—nla) and they make a thought-provoking coupling. The Fourth is obviously the product of a bitter spiritual experience: the close proximity of death to which he found himself in 1909 wrought an irreversible change in his musical language. It inhabits a totally different sound world from its predecessors, and its utterance and gestures are pared to the barest essentials. And who, after the desolation in which the Fourth ends, would have imagined the shape its successor was to take? The heroic mould in which the Fifth is cast could hardly be more at variance with the dark times in which it was conceived. The first ideas came to him as early as 1912 and it consumed his thinking for the best part of seven years to the virtual exclusion of any other major project.
Although he has recorded the Nielsen symphonies twice (EMI—nla—and Decca), I had never heard Herbert Blomstedt conducting Sibelius before. Let me say straight away that these accounts of the Fourth and Fifth Symphonies are very impressive indeed. First, the sound he secures from the San Francisco orchestra is exactly right: the strings are cultured without being too sumptuous, the wind and brass are beautifully blended and the overall sound is lean and refined. Secondly, there is no sense of the barline, yet an inexorable almost imperceptible feeling of forward movement. This is impressive in both symphonies, as is the feeling for texture. At the opening of the first movement of the Fourth Symphony I admire the way in which he pares down the sound, almost as if to remind us that this work was originally sketched out as a quartet. The slow movement has a marvellous sense of mystery yet intimacy, and of communion with nature. In the finale, incidentally, Blomstedt, like Ansermet and Bernstein before him (Decca and CBS respectively—both nla), opts for the bells rather than glockenspiel. As I mentioned when reviewing Saraste's RCA acccount of the Fourth Symphony (1/91), there is a letter to Leslie Heward in Sibelius's hand from 1935, obviously written in response to an inquiry about the use of the glockenspiel in this symphony, where he writes: ''Concerning your two technical questions, I would suggest to you the using of glockenspiel in the Fourth Symphony and stahlstabe in Oceanides''. All the same Blomstedt penetrates the spirit of this symphony and in particular its closing pages more completely than most conductors. The Fifth Symphony is marvellously paced and is indeed one of the finest accounts of the work at present before the public. It deserves to rank alongside the Karajan (DG) and Rattle/Philharmonia (EMI) versions. I have one reservation about the transition between the two sections of the first movement, where his accelerando is just a little too steep. To my mind Yoel Levi and the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra get this absolutely right.
To tell the truth on first acquaintance I thought Levi's account unexceptional (good but not special) and postponed writing about it. I am glad that I did, for returning to it after hearing the Blomstedt, I formed a more positive impression. The shifts of tempo in the slow movement strike me as less perfectly judged than they are on the Blomstedt but the performance as a whole is a good one, even if the orchestral playing (particularly in the string department) is not quite a match for the San Francisco in terms of tonal refinement and blend.
The First Symphony is far from negligible either: the tempo of the first movement's allegro is a bit too measured (he finds the tempo giusto in the development) and there are some self-conscious touches—the pianissimo echo at fig. A in the slow movement (track 2, 0'53'') may strike some listeners as a bit extreme, and I was not always convinced by his handling of tempo in this movement. All the same if there are exaggerations (the brass sforzandos seven bars before fig. M: track 2, 6'03'' for example) over which one could take issue, there is much more to like and admire. There is a freshness about Levi's approach and he has obvious feeling for the repertoire. The Telarc recording is very good indeed, as is that provided by the Decca team for Blomstedt. However, in the First Symphony I would not prefer Levi to Ashkenazy (Decca) or Karajan (mid-price EMI), or in the Fifth to this other newcomer. A strong recommendation, then, for Blomstedt, whose performances have stature.
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