The four discs’ worth of Sibelius recorded by Paavo Järvi
in the 1990s for Virgin have been an artistically and commercially
rewarding lode. They have been multiply reissued and repackaged
and they certainly justify all the attention. Before the present
bargain price reissue this Kullervo came out in 2007
(review)
on Virgin Classics 3913632. All four CDs were issued first at
full price then in a box at very little less than full price.
After that came a series some of which have been reviewed here.
To top the sequence all four discs have been announced for imminent
reissue as a new 4 CD budget box on Virgin Classics 6484032.
None of these readings or recordings are let-downs (though the
opera The Maiden has its longueurs) so you may want to
wait for the box unless you already have the tone
poems double and the rare
choral works disc.
There aren’t any real duds among the recorded Kullervos
- it has been very fortunate on disc. This goes some way to
redress its long enforced silence after the premiere until Jussi
Jalas conducted it a few years after the composer’s death
- I have always wanted to hear that performance and it was issued
on a very limited circulation LP. Another period of obscurity
followed until Paavo Berglund’s ground-breaking recording
with the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra for EMI
Classics circa 1971. The visionary gleam was not replicated
in Berglund’s second EMI production with the Helsinki
orchestra. Since then recordings by Salonen (Sony), Segerstam
(Chandos CHAN9393, Ondine),
Panula (Naxos),
Vänskä (Bis),
Davis (RCA,
LSO Live), Rasilainen
and the exceptional performance by Spano
on Telarc have kept the work in front of an enthusiastic public.
The overwhelming quality of the music leaves us confounded as
to the composer’s ban on performance.
Järvi has a very effective and emphatic way with Kullervo.
The way he etches and adumbrates themes through fine attention
to dynamic and flexible tempo - notably in Kullervo’s
Youth - is very telling indeed. Järvi lets no detail
pass without attention - often fresh and with touching nuance
as in the breathtaking shimmer of the violins in Kullervo’s
death. In Kullervo and his sister the choir’s
spit and bark as well as their Puccinian tenderness work extremely
well. The two soloists are satisfying indeed. The sound of the
brass benches is captured with special bite - heavy with almond-bitter.
They take on a more open aureate sound in Kullervo goes to
war.
Among the not numerous budget price Kullervos this one
stands superior. Its only competition is the Panula Naxos 1996
recording which cannot quite match the detailing of Mike Hatch’s
engineering for Virgin. Pity there’s no text/translation.
Rob Barnett
Randi Stene (mezzo); Peter Mattei (baritone) 
