MusicWeb International One of the most grown-up review sites around 2023
Approaching 60,000 reviews
and more.. and still writing ...

Search MusicWeb Here Acte Prealable Polish CDs
 

Presto Music CD retailer
 
Founder: Len Mullenger                                    Editor in Chief:John Quinn             


CD REVIEW

Some items
to consider

new MWI
Current reviews

old MWI
pre-2023 reviews

paid for
advertisements

Acte Prealable Polish recordings

Forgotten Recordings
Forgotten Recordings
All Forgotten Records Reviews

TROUBADISC
Troubadisc Weinberg- TROCD01450

All Troubadisc reviews


FOGHORN Classics

Alexandra-Quartet
Brahms String Quartets

All Foghorn Reviews


All HDTT reviews


Songs to Harp from
the Old and New World


all Nimbus reviews



all tudor reviews


Follow us on Twitter


Editorial Board
MusicWeb International
Founding Editor
   
Rob Barnett
Editor in Chief
John Quinn
Contributing Editor
Ralph Moore
Webmaster
   David Barker
Postmaster
Jonathan Woolf
MusicWeb Founder
   Len Mullenger

alternatively
CD: AmazonUK AmazonUS
Download: Classicsonline

 

Jean SIBELIUS (1865 – 1957)
Nightride and Sunrise, op.55 (1908) [16:38]
Pan and Echo (Tanz–Intermezzo No.3), op.53a (1906) [4:51]
Suite from Belshazzar’s Feast, op.51 (1906) [14:31]
The Dryad, op.45/1 (1910) [5:46]
Tanz–Intermezzo, op.45/2 (1904 rev 1907) [2:51]
Kuolema (Death), op.44 and 62 (1903 and 1911) [19:57]
New Zealand Symphony Orchestra/Pietari Inkinen
rec. 29 July-1 August 2007, Michael Fowler Centre, Wellington, New Zealand. DDD
NAXOS 8.570763 [64:34]
Experience Classicsonline



 

I was very impressed with this orchestra’s last Sibelius offering (review review) and on this new disk there is even more to admire and enjoy.

Nightride and Sunrise has long been a favourite work of mine – the galloping forward momentum, with flashes of themes rushing across the musical landscape, the journey we’re taken on. As we approach the sunrise, which is the second half of the work, the music broadens and becomes lighter; with the dawning of a new day the terrors of the night pass. This is truly magnificent stuff. Inkinen and his orchestra convey the ride well, and the relentlessness of the barren landscape through which we are traveling is laid out before us; when dawn breaks there is the most wonderful horn playing, and later, the woodwind figurations are delicate and precise. Towards the end there is the most brilliant climax which Inkinen builds with care and places it perfectly within his concept of the piece as a whole. This is almost as fine a performance as my favourite by the London Symphony an Antal Dorati (EMI Gemini 585 7852) which no collection should be without.

Nothing can really follow Nightride and Sunrise and the poor little Pan and Echo doesn’t stand a chance, which is a shame for it is a lovely piece – one of Sibelius’s many examples of light music: I am sure that many of us made our first acquaintance with this work on an EMI LP of Sibelius’s lighter music played by the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic under Charles Groves (now available on EMI Classics Gemini 7243 5 85532 2 2). It’s a winsome little piece, a gorgeous slow opening section giving way to a bacchanalian dance

Belshazzar’s Feast was a play by Hjalmar Procopé, which has sunk without trace. The complete incidental music was recorded by Osmo Vänskä and the Lahti Symphony Orchestra as part of the BIS complete Sibelius series (BIS–CD–735, coupled with the incidental music to Jedermann, op.83 (1916)) but it is the Suite, heard here, which has achieved many recordings since Kajanus’s pioneering 78s made in 1931. The four movements are full of mock eastern promise and are wholly uncharacteristic of their composer, but they are very enjoyable nonetheless. But this incidental music pales beside the superb pieces from Kuolema (Death), a play by Sibelius’s brother–in–law Armas Järnefelt – the complete incidental music can be found on BIS–CD–915 played by the Lahti Symphony under Vänskä, coupled with the incidental music to Karelia (1893). What is interesting about these four pieces is that they were created from the incidental music and have found places in the repertoire – especially the Valse triste, tinged, as it is, with a bitter sweet melancholy. Scene with Cranes is a very dramatic piece, while Canzonetta is an elegiac movement for stings and the Valse romantique is just that. A Finnish waltz? What will they think of next? These last two pieces are more of Sibelius’s huge catalogue of lighter pieces and they are charming.

Between these two sets of theatre music come two more light miniatures. The Dryad is a peculiar little piece for it has big intentions. There’s a strange chromatic figure which keeps re–appearing on strings and winds, some beautiful muted string music, and a big brass dominated climax near the beginning. It’s strangely static for the music seems suspended in mid air, with no real idea of where it is going, but yet it’s a very complete and satisfying miniature. The following Tanz–Intermezzo is another oddity; part suave waltz, part fandango, complete with castanets.

As with Inkinen’s previous Sibelius disk this is very enjoyable and with the orchestra recorded slightly away from the microphones you can turn up the volume and have a wonderful aural experience for the recorded sound is magnificent. I loved every minute of it and this is a real must have which should not be missed at any cost.

Bob Briggs

See also review by Rob Barnett


 


Advertising on
Musicweb


Donate and keep us afloat

 

New Releases

Naxos Classical
All Naxos reviews

Hyperion recordings
All Hyperion reviews

Foghorn recordings
All Foghorn reviews

Troubadisc recordings
All Troubadisc reviews



all Bridge reviews


all cpo reviews

Divine Art recordings
Click to see New Releases
Get 10% off using code musicweb10
All Divine Art reviews


All Eloquence reviews

Lyrita recordings
All Lyrita Reviews

 

Wyastone New Releases
Obtain 10% discount

Subscribe to our free weekly review listing

 

 


EXPLORE MUSICWEB INTERNATIONAL

Making a Donation to MusicWeb

Writing CD reviews for MWI

About MWI
Who we are, where we have come from and how we do it.

Site Map

How to find a review

How to find articles on MusicWeb
Listed in date order

Review Indexes
   By Label
      Select a label and all reviews are listed in Catalogue order
   By Masterwork
            Links from composer names (eg Sibelius) are to resource pages with links to the review indexes for the individual works as well as other resources.

Themed Review pages

Jazz reviews

 

Discographies
   Composer
      Composer surveys
   National
      Unique to MusicWeb -
a comprehensive listing of all LP and CD recordings of given works
.
Prepared by Michael Herman

The Collector’s Guide to Gramophone Company Record Labels 1898 - 1925
Howard Friedman

Book Reviews

Complete Books
We have a number of out of print complete books on-line

Interviews
With Composers, Conductors, Singers, Instumentalists and others
Includes those on the Seen and Heard site

Nostalgia

Nostalgia CD reviews

Records Of The Year
Each reviewer is given the opportunity to select the best of the releases

Monthly Best Buys
Recordings of the Month and Bargains of the Month

Comment
Arthur Butterworth Writes

An occasional column

Phil Scowcroft's Garlands
British Light Music articles

Classical blogs
A listing of Classical Music Blogs external to MusicWeb International

Reviewers Logs
What they have been listening to for pleasure

Announcements

 

Community
Bulletin Board

Give your opinions or seek answers

Reviewers
Past and present

Helpers invited!

Resources
How Did I Miss That?

Currently suspended but there are a lot there with sound clips


Composer Resources

British Composers

British Light Music Composers

Other composers

Film Music (Archive)
Film Music on the Web (Closed in December 2006)

Programme Notes
For concert organizers

External sites
British Music Society
The BBC Proms
Orchestra Sites
Recording Companies & Retailers
Online Music
Agents & Marketing
Publishers
Other links
Newsgroups
Web News sites etc

PotPourri
A pot-pourri of articles

MW Listening Room
MW Office

Advice to Windows Vista users  
Questionnaire    
Site History  
What they say about us
What we say about us!
Where to get help on the Internet
CD orders By Special Request
Graphics archive
Currency Converter
Dictionary
Magazines
Newsfeed  
Web Ring
Translation Service

Rules for potential reviewers :-)
Do Not Go Here!
April Fools




Return to Review Index

Untitled Document


Reviews from previous months
Join the mailing list and receive a hyperlinked weekly update on the discs reviewed. details
We welcome feedback on our reviews. Please use the Bulletin Board
Please paste in the first line of your comments the URL of the review to which you refer.