Rouvali and his Gothenburg orchestra have now recorded Sibelius’s seven numbered symphonies. Competition, just considering Finnish conductors, is rather fierce: I counted at least 12, with cycles by Salonen, Storgårds, Vänskä, Kamu, Saraste, Segerstam (two cycles), Lintu, Berglund (three cycles), and Mäkelä (reviewed here).
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Yet even in this overly saturated field, Rouvali’s readings stand out as perceptive, thoughtful, and individual interpretations. After repeated listening, I would argue this is the happiest reading of the sixth I know, sparkling with life: articulation is crisp, and orchestral balance reveals a wealth of color and detail.
In the first movement’s introduction, Karajan and Segerstam (especially in his Danish NSO/Chandos recording) invoke a more forbidding atmosphere, whereas Rouvali suggests a crisp, brilliant spring morning. The main allegro has a buoyant balletic grace, though the Coda (with growling basses and snarling brass) swings the mood to awestruck wonder.
The Gothenburg strings and brass offer up a wealth of color in the middle movements, and the finale grips from first bar to last, in a particularly wistful playing. All of this is enhanced by Alpha’s engineering, the wide and deep soundstage really giving the listener a true concert hall perspective.
Rouvali’s seventh is equally impressive, its various sections flowing inexorably into one another. Some conductors soften the tetchier aspects of the writing; both Karajan and Blomstedt draw out playing that softens the music’s sharper edges to create a more upholstered orchestral texture. But Rouvali embraces the music’s craggy elements and drifting harmonies while always keeping the music’s emotional temperature close to boiling (By comparison, both Karajan and Vänskä adopt a more stoic approach).
There is a compelling sense of contrast throughout the performance: struggle and exultation, vibrancy and resignation, gentle fragility, and fulsome summits. The brass playing is superb, especially the trombone solo work. As Rouvali perfectly gauges every seismic emotional shift, all leading to those final bars in which the music finally arrives at the long sought after C-Major chord, a hard won, impactful victory.
The composer’s incidental music for The Tempest, first heard at the Royal Theatre in Copenhagen on 16 March 1926, is the last orchestral work Sibelius wrote. Shakespeare’s play is sometimes categorized as a comedy, but its story, which opens with a shipwreck, includes supernatural creatures, magic, revenge, and betrayal – not the best comedic fodder. This performance includes eight of the score’s thirty-four movements and gives us a sense of how Sibelius could conjure mood and atmosphere in his stage music, especially when it is played with the character and beauty heard here.
Santtu-Matias Rouvali (image: ©️ Marco Borggreve)
This is the fifth release in Alpha Classics Sibelius series. I appreciate that the series has taken its time, because Rouvali’s conducting has matured as the series progressed; his understanding of Sibelius’s sound world and spiritual landscape has deepened, and he also draws playing of considerable finesse, beauty, and character from his Gothenburg players. The initial recording, featuring the first symphony, met with near unanimous acclaim. The follow-up recording of the second was perhaps less successful, but the readings of Symphonies 3-5, as well as Pohjola’s Daughter and The Wood Nymph, are the equal of any previous performance in the catalogue.
Andrew Mellor’s notes are excellent, and the booklet includes a full player roster. The label’s advertising suggests the series will include all symphonies and symphonic poems, so I hope we can look forward to more of the tone poems and Kullervo, as well as more of the Incidental Music.
Recommended Comparisons:
Berglund | Mäkelä | Barbiolli | Karajan (4-7)
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Album Details |
|
|---|---|
| Album name | Sibelius: Symphonies 6&7, The Tempest |
| Label | Alpha Classics / Outhere |
| Catalogue No. | 1130 |
| Amazon Music link | Stream here |
| Apple Music link | Stream here |
| Artists | Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra Santtu-Matias Rouvali |
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