Search - Jean Sibelius, John Barbirolli, Hallé :: Sibelius: Symphony No. 1, 2, 5 & 7; The Swan of Tuonela

Five Star Performances/Four Star Sound

Scott D. Harris | Chattanooga, TN | 03/21/2001

(5 out of 5 stars)

"This is one of the best Barbirolli Society releases to appear thus far. Barbirolli and the Halle Orchestra were well-known as Sibelian interpreters throughout their time togther; this double disc captures their single symphony recordings made for EMI (HMV) and Pye Records during the 1950's. All of these recordings save the 7th Symphony were done in Manchester's Free Trade Hall; all save Symphonies 1 and 5 are in mono. The mono recordings are from HMV, the stereo are from Pye in what must have been some of the very first stereo efforts in the recording industry.Let me say at the outset that these are all great performances. Barbirolli, at least for me, captures the Sibelian idiom very well in these recordings. Particularly notable are the 1st Symphony, the Swan of Tuonela, and the 2nd Symphony. The Halle plays intensely for Glorious John and there is almost no slack in tension throughout this set, despite the years separating many of the recordings. A word about the sound - the Pye recordings have been very well-remastered by Dutton Laboratories - they betray only a mild loss of bass, but exhibit great clarity in the treble registers, along with an acceptable level of air around the orchestra. At times, though, the HMV mono recordings sound fuller, more rich and well-balanced. Overall, a "must-have" for anyone interested in Sibelius or this conductor."

Historically interesting

Charles T. Neal | Globe, AZ, United States | 03/19/2005

(3 out of 5 stars)

"Strangely, the monaural disc is by far the better of this two-CD collection. The orchestra is better balanced and Barbirolli's Sibelius interpretations are much closer to "definitive" than on the stereo disk. Barbirolli well accomplished the difficult task of making sense out of Sibelius' seventh symphony, a one-movement work which shows him to have been a true twentieth-century composer, not just a late romantic, nationalistic throwback. Sir John brought out those twists of harmony and orchestration which make the listener raise his eyebrows and say "been listening to a little Shostakovitch here and there, Jean, old man?" His rendition of the second symphony is superb, and any deviations from what we might expect from the later great conductors are on the up-tempo side, which I found to be an exciting improvement. True, it's hard to go wrong with the second, as it's arguably the best-known and most-played of the Sibelius symphonies. In places of Slavic or Scandinavian heritage from Murmansk to South Dakota, it's at least within the experience of a secondary school orchestra student. I'm sure thousands have heard the conjured-up tale of how the processional part of the finale supposedly represents Finnish prisoners of war trudging home from Russia through the snowbound forests -- a tale likely invented by school conductors to placate the unfortunate cello or bassoon student who had to play all those repetitive scales, rolling under the melodic line (I was the latter, a bassoon student, and found my part quite an exercize in endurance and attentiveness, at about age 16). Barbirolli captured that and so much more; this finale doesn't have those places that just sort of lie there within your hearing, it MOVES, it flows. The same is true of the other movements. The scherzo in particular has a measure of extra life to it not found in other interpretations. And the orchestra is well balanced, here, in spite of the monaural recording. Particularly impressive is the full, rich, dark sound of the oboes, clarinets, and bassoons, perfect for Sibelius. That includes an English Horn soloist for "the Swan of Tuonela" who is of similar caliber to the great Louis Rosenblatt, who sounded much the same with the Philadelphia Orchestra under Ormandy.



Sadly, the first disk is a disappointment compared to the second. The notes say that Barbirolli once said "we don't play Sibelius just for the Finns," to which I'm tempted to retort, "No, you didn't play it as WELL as the Finns, or for that matter, the Swedes." If you've heard Jukka-Pekka Saraste's rendition of the first symphony with the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra, Barbirolli's is sadly lacking by comparison, most notably in plodding tempos and poor orchestral balance. Some of that might be the recording technique -- strangely, it seems that the engineer's idea of "stereo" was to imbed the microphones at two different places in the first violin section, so that the violins overpower everything else. Particularly in the first symphony, one wishes for a separate volume control for the woodwinds and especially the brass. Sibelius without good, solid brass sounds musically emasculated, and this recording sounds like the brass (and woodwinds) are playing in the studio next door, compared to the overpowering violins. But we can't blame the engineers for Barbirolli's choice of tempi. These two symphonies are good candidates for "most plodding, lifeless Sibelius" I've ever heard. It's the exact opposite of the rousing up-tempo rendition he gave of the second symphony. The expansive grandeur of the finale of the fifth is caught, all right, but at the expense of any sense of direction. That gorgeous triple-meter horn theme we all know and love doesn't come off, partly because the horns are so far from the microphone and partly because of Barbirolli's plodding tempo. The same is true throughout his rendition of the first. Passages which have a near waltz-like lilt under other conductors sound more like unhurried, stately classical minuets here. Barbirolli's rendition of the fifth is quite inferior, say, to Esa Pekka Salonen's recording with the Philharmonia on the old CBS Masterworks label (which is a thrilling recording, the kind that sends chills of awe up the spine).



In summation: you get a most accessible Seventh, a novel, lively Second, a good "Swan of Tuonela," but also a good historical lesson in how much interpretation of the First and Fifth symphonies has changed since Barbirolli's recordings ... and changed decidedly for the better since Sir John did it."