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Sibelius - Symphony no.2, King Christian II Suite

£13.88

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Label: Alpha

Cat No: ALPHA574

Barcode: 3760014195747

Format: CD

Number of Discs: 1

Genre: Orchestral

Release Date: 14th February 2020

Works

Sibelius, Jean

King Christian II Suite, op.27
Symphony no.2 in D major, op.43

Artists

Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra

Conductor

Santtu-Matias Rouvali

Works

Sibelius, Jean

King Christian II Suite, op.27
Symphony no.2 in D major, op.43

Artists

Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra

Conductor

Santtu-Matias Rouvali

About

After the resounding success of Volume 1 (Gramophone Editor’s Choice, Preis der Deutschen Schallplattenkritik, Diapason d’Or, Choc de Classica, FFFF Télérama), the project to record the complete Sibelius symphonies continues with the Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra and Santtu-Matias Rouvali, whose career as a conductor is entering top gear: he has just been appointed Principal Conductor of the Philharmonia Orchestra in London.

At the turn of the twentieth century, as Finland struggled to free itself from Russian rule, Sibelius and his wife faced several domestic dramas, including the loss of one of their daughters, Kirsti, to typhoid fever. The Second Symphony, written in the brilliant key of D major, seems to be marked by the events of the composer’s private life, but many of his contemporaries nevertheless saw it as a political manifesto! In 1898, Sibelius composed the incidental music for Adolf Paul’s play King Christian II, the story of the downfall of a king of Scandinavia (Denmark, Sweden and Norway) in the sixteenth century. The suite derived from it was successfully performed in several European cities.

Sound/Video

Paused

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Symphony no.2 in D major, op.43 - I. Allegretto - poco allegro
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Symphony no.2 in D major, op.43 - II. Tempo andante, ma rubato
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Symphony no.2 in D major, op.43 - III. Vivacissimo
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Symphony no.2 in D major, op.43 - IV. Allegro moderato
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King Christian Suite II (Suite), op.27 - I. Nocturne
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King Christian Suite II (Suite), op.27 - II. Elegie
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King Christian Suite II (Suite), op.27 - III. Musette
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King Christian Suite II (Suite), op.27 - IV. Serenade
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King Christian Suite II (Suite), op.27 - V. Ballade

Europadisc Review

Following up on their recent, widely-acclaimed recording of Sibelius’s First Symphony, the Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra under chief conductor Santtu-Matias Rouvali continue their projected Sibelius cycle with an equally impressive account of the Second Symphony. This is one of the composer’s most popular works and, against strong competition, the question inevitably is whether they can offer anything new. If you’re expecting any startling revelations or novel interpretative quirks, the answer may well be no; what is startling about this performance, however, is its combination of sheer mastery with a dazzling textural clarity. The Gothenburg orchestra has this music in their DNA, and it’s one of Rouvali’s many strengths that he knows how to bring out the best from his players and the music while knowing when to not get in the way. At the same time, he achieves fabulous transparency through natural means, without any unnecessary spotlighting or knob-twiddling.

This is a performance of enormous integrity and structural coherence, most obviously in the unfolding of the first movement, with its multitude of ideas all derived from the opening string gesture, transformed by inversion, retrograde, scoring, register and context. Rouvali’s pacing is impeccable, and he also knows how to shape the music’s ebb and flow, building to powerful climaxes featuring glowing brass and an enviable depth of tone from the strings. Outstanding, too, are the woodwind, whether in solos or in the ‘voicing’ of the section as a whole.

The first movement’s close – delivered here as an almost throw-away gesture – serves as an excellent foil to the mysterious opening of the second movement, with its ghostly pizzicato strings and sombre bassoons. For many commentators this is the work’s least successful movement, at least in purely ‘symphonic’ terms. Yet Rouvali invests this Life-and-Death struggle with the same logical inevitability that he brings to the first movement, while getting the most out of the brass outbursts (those tenacious, snarling chords expertly shaped and held), and achieving a hushed inwardness in the gentle ‘Christus’ motive on the strings (at 4’34”). You can also hear the responsiveness of the players not just to Rouvali himself but to one another – the true mark of a great ensemble.

In the Vivaccisimo third movement Rouvali brings a breezy but light-footed momentum to the music, underpinned, as ever, by a sureness in the orchestral bass, while in the Lento ‘trio’ section M؅årten Larsson’s affecting oboe solos are gorgeously shaped and pliant. During the transition to the finale, the swirl of cross-beat quavers in the strings, with a slight accent to each pair, is typical of Rouvali’s unself-conscious attention to detail. And the finale itself? Few other orchestras could manage the depth and richness of tone, or unerring feel for the idiom, that the Gothenburgers do without a sense of overdoing things: here, however, there’s a combination of power and restraint, so that the stormy build-up of the movement’s second half and the final, refulgent climax really do crown a reading of noble inevitability and unshowy intensity.

The coupling has a very different feel: the Suite from Sibelius’s 1898 music to his friend Adolf Paul’s historical drama, King Christian II. There’s more space around the sound here, yet also a feeling of greater intimacy, with grace and poise to the opening Nocturne (the woodwind enjoying their moment in the spotlight), and exquisite string shading in the following Elegie. The central Musette has great buoyancy, with some delicious clarinet and bassoon playing bringing a folk-like hue and mood to proceedings. Coloured by horns, brass and timpani, there’s a feeling of the theatrical outdoors to the fourth-movement Serenade, while the concluding Ballade has real bite, with scurrying strings and plaintive wind, and an infectiously demonic central section, culminating in a joyous major-key episode before the fierce minor-key close. Listening to the uninhibited playing of the Gothenburg players, you can hear why this was one of his first major international successes at the turn of the century.

With this generous coupling, Rouvali’s account of the Second Symphony is a major addition to the catalogue, and only serves to confirm this as one of the most satisfying and exciting Sibelius cycles to emerge in recent years, all captured in excellent sound by producer Jens Braun and engineer Lars Nilsson. Listeners can look forward to future instalments with confidence!

Reviews

Rouvali doesn’t rush: the scherzo’s Vivacissimo main tempo, for instance, is just a notch slower than we often hear, allowing momentum real room to build. And he controls the symphony’s sometimes brass-heavy orchestration without undercutting the music’s power: the finale’s closing peroration is a thrilling display of exaltation without bombast. Malcolm Hayes

BBC Music Magazine June 2020

Rouvali is a rather impulsive, excitable Sibelius conductor, favouring extremes of tempi and of dynamics, and regularly pushing the brass to the front of the sound picture. This is very much a view of the Second Symphony as descended from Tchaikovsky, rather than as the forerunner of later Sibelius... Andrew Clements

The Guardian 13 February 2020