REVIEW:Yes, this work is a symphony, at least as much as is Berlioz’s Harold in Italy, Tchaikovsky’s Manfred, Rimsky-Korsakov’s Antar, or Liszt’s Faust. Sibelius himself...

REVIEW:

Yes, this work is a symphony, at least as much as is Berlioz’s Harold in Italy, Tchaikovsky’s Manfred, Rimsky-Korsakov’s Antar, or Liszt’s Faust. Sibelius himself referred to it as such, and in fact claimed that he really had written nine symphonies (including Kullervo), despite the fact that this one got broken up into its constituent parts early on in its history. There have been some excellent modern performances of the complete work, including those by Salonen, Järvi (twice), Saraste, and best of all, this one (Vänskä’s turned out to be one of his big disappointments).

This performance has several things going for it. First of all, Segerstam is himself a violinist and he pays special attention to Sibelius’ string writing, always crucial. Those acres of tremolo have to sound purposeful, and the sheer texture and timbre of the string playing here leaves just about every other version in the dust. Second, Segerstam has the gift of touching in subtle details of color and rhythm without breaking the back of a phrase. You can hear this immediately at the start of Lemminkäinen and the Maidens of Saari, where he catches the cross-rhythm in Sibelius’ writing as in no other performance (sound sample below). Third, Segerstam places Lemminkäinen in Tuonela second in playing order, which was Sibelius’ original idea and which works better, in my opinion, than reserving second position for The Swan of Tuonela.

None of this would matter were the interpretations not outstanding expressively, but they certainly are. Lemminkäinen and the Maidens of Saari is the most passionate performance on disc; Lemminkäinen in Tuonela the grimmest. The Swan has atmosphere to burn, with a superb English horn solo; and the finale, Lemminkäinen’s Return, is tremendously exciting but weighty enough to serve as a true symphonic finale. The whole production is magnificently recorded, and topped off by a considerable bonus in the form of a slow, brooding, incredibly intense rendering of Tapiola. A great disc.

-- David Hurwitz, ClassicsToday.com