MusicWeb International One of the most grown-up review sites around 2024
60,000 reviews
... and still writing ...

Search MusicWeb Here Acte Prealable Polish CDs
 

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


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

REVIEW


Advertising on
Musicweb


Donate and keep us afloat

 

New Releases

Naxos Classical
All Naxos reviews

Chandos recordings
All Chandos 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

 

 

alternatively
CD: MDT AmazonUK AmazonUS
Downloads from eclassical.com

Jean SIBELIUS (1865-1957)
The Tempest - Overture, Op.109 No.1 [7:12]
The Tempest - Suites No.1, Op.109 No.2 [21:43]; No.2, Op.109 No.3 [15:51]
The Bard, Op.64 [7:01]
Tapiola, Op.112 [17:36]
Lahti Symphony Orchestra/Okko Kamu
rec. January 2011, Sibelius Hall, Lahti, Finland. DDD
Hybrid Disc (SACD Surround / SACD Stereo / CD Stereo)
Complete track-list at end of review
Reviewed in standard stereo
BIS-SACD-1945 [71:41]

Experience Classicsonline

While googling Sibelius and The Tempest I found reference to an extraordinary event broadcast on the BBC Third Programme on 29 December 1949. This was a 135 minute radio adaptation of The Tempest arranged by Dennis Arundell with Sibelius’s incidental music performed by the BBC Opera Chorus and Orchestra conducted by Stanford Robinson. It had James McKechnie as Prospero and Gabrielle Blunt as Miranda. Other more familiar names were David Kossoff, Molly Rankin and Carleton Hobbs as Gonzalo. I wonder if a recording survives anywhere.

That’s an aside really. This Sibelius anthology comes from one of Finland’s elder statesmen conductors, Okko Kamu. Despite achieving greatness early on as a DG-supported protégée of Karajan who recorded Sibelius’s first three symphonies as a complement to Karajan’s last four Kamu has not had a high profile. He has taken a quieter route than his countryman, the much loved and now ailing Paavo Berglund. Note must also be made for additional and brilliant interpretations of the Lemminkainen Legends, Karelia Suite, The Bard and En Saga – all now on Eloquence.

One wonder what prompted this project – not that it lacks virtues. Bis have just completed their exhaustive 13 volume Sibelius Edition which includes The Tempest music in full in the version conducted by Vänskä back in 1992 with the same orchestra – originally issued on BIS-CD-581. The same box (volume 5) also includes Neeme Järvi conducting the Prelude and the two suites in 1990 – originally issued with the Cassazione, Preludio and Tiera on BIS-CD-448. Kamu is no stranger to the full 40 cue cycle rather than the 20 tracks we have here. In fact Kamu made a famous broadcast of the complete sequence back in 1972. This was part of a European Broadcasting Union relay with the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra and Chorus. The soloists were Usko Vitainen and the incomparable Taru Valjakka who recorded Luonnotar so luminously with Berglund for EMI. What we have on this disc is valuable for some of us as a reminder of that now long distant radio event but also as it preserves Kamu’s vision of this episodic and challenging music. His Prelude is notable for its implacably calm finale. The Humoreske is bouncily airborne. The Caliban Song looks back to the music for Belshazzar’s Feast. Intrada recalls the dark dissonances at the start of Prokofiev’s Romeo and Juliet. Sibelius’s Prospero seems to reference Handel. At several points the links with Tchaikosky’s ballet music are underlined yet the flavouring is unmistakably Nordic. I have yet to hear anyone trounce Beecham in these miniatures but certainly Kamu comes close and this silver pure recording certainly compares well with Beecham’s somewhat tired analogue (Sony). There’s a gentle The Bard with some satisfyingly growling brass at the fleetingly assertive climax but except in recording terms this is on a par with the analogue recording of the work that he made in the 1970s for DG. The Tapiola is a cut above – as a work it can seem flat-footed. This is not the case here. Incidents are touched in with the most finely flecked skill and the sickle-edged vortex of a gale evoked by the keen-bladed violins is memorable. This is not the equal of the extraordinary but ancient Van Beinum version on Eloquence but it is a far from inconsiderable reading and the cutting edge recording accentuates its merits. The annotations are by Andrew Barnett.

Rob Barnett

BIS Sibelius Edition reviews

Complete track-list
The Tempest – Overture, Op.109 No.1
1. Largamente molto – Largo assai 7'12
The Tempest – Suite No.1, Op.109 No.2
2. I. Der Eichbaum (The Oak Tree). Andante sostenuto 3'00
3. II. Humoreske. Allegro commodo 1'05
4. III. Calibans Lied (Caliban’s Song). Allegro commodo 1'29
5. IV. Die Herbstmänner (The Harvesters). Allegro 2'26
6. V. Canon. Allegro 2'06
7. VI. Scène. Allegretto 1'35
8. VII. Intrada – Berceuse. Largo – Andante sostenuto 2'33
9. VIII. Zwischenspiel – Ariels Lied (Entr’acte – Ariel’s Song) 2'57
10. IX. Der Sturm (The Storm). Largo – Largo assai 4'32
The Tempest – Suite No.2, Op.109 No.3
11. I. Chor der Winde (Chorus of the Winds). Largamente assai – Poco adagio 2'51
12. II. Intermezzo. Andante con moto 1'58
13. III. Tanz der Nymphen (Dance of the Nymphs). Allegretto grazioso 1'59
14. IV. Prospero. Largo 1'31
15. V. Lied I (Song I). Allegretto moderato 1'02
16. VI. Lied II (Song II). Un poco con moto 1'03
17. VII. Miranda. Allegretto 1'53
18. VIII. Die Najaden (The Naiads). Poco con moto 1'34
19. IX. Tanz-Episode (Dance Episode) 2'04
The Bard, Op.64
20. Lento assai – Largamente 7'01
Tapiola, Op.112
21. Largamente – Allegro moderato – Allegro 17'36
Lahti Symphony Orchestra/Okko Kamu


 

 

 

 

 


 

 

 

 


 


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






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.