Sibelius: Symphonies Nos. 4-7 [CD]

Much maligned for his "beautified" sound (and for many other things) during his 30-odd year rule over the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra, Herbert von Karajan nevertheless possessed a unique insight into the music of Jean Sibelius. Even the composer himself is said to have preferred Karajan's performances to those of any other conductor at the time including Sir Thomas Beecham. Whatever may be said of Karajan's arguably malignant influence on the state of the classical music industry and his questionable past during Hitler's Third Reich, he was indeed a great conductor and, to my mind, the finest interpreter of Sibelius there has ever been. This I feel even after hearing the records of Koussevitsky, Kajanus, Beecham and the more recent conductors such as Maazel, Davis, Rattle, Jansons and Blomstedt. Karajan recorded the last four symphonies of Sibelius several times during his lifetime, but these records from the 1960s with the BPO at its peak and a superb DG recording team headed by Otto Gerdes are without doubt the best.

In the Fourth, the BPO strings, so normally beautiful in texture even svelte in some music, are chilling, easily evoking the bleak landscapes depicted in this marvellous music. In fact you feel your there, relegating almost all competition no more than musical postcards. Although Maazel and the VPO on Decca and Sir Colin Davis' LSO recording should be heard.

The fifth is, I feel, the best of the lot, although I know it has its detractors and the competition is stiff. The first movement has tremendous momentum and power, not quite in the same league as Sir Simon Rattle and the Philharmonia, whose first movement is the best I've ever heard but that record is let down by the lack of horn power towards the end of the finale. But it is in the finale where the Karajan performance reigns supreme. The tempi are ideal as they are with Sir Simon but the tension and mystery is somehow indefinably more alive with this performance crowned by the BPO horns who sound as if they have trebled their ranks for the final overwhelming coda. This is not to be missed in any circumstances. Only death can be used as an excuse for not hearing this. Also, play it loud. Very loud.

Incidently, if you want to hear the most eccentric recording of Sibelius' Fifth, certainly that I have ever heard, try Bernstein's later DG recording, I think with the NYPO but I am not sure. The first movement is quite good, slow, but well thought-out. But the last movement is so sluggish and drawn out it almost grinds to a halt - it is unbelievable! It is probably the worst interpretation of any music I've ever heard and I heard Vanessa-Mae on the radio yesterday! Hear it if you can but don't expect much of a musical experience. But I'm reviewing Karajan not Bernstein.

Karajan's Sixth is also in another class. But in this symphony overwhelming power must give way to almost gentle lyricism where the string are once again a delight to hear. Sometimes you get the feeling that this symphony escapes some interpreters. I don't pretend to understand it myself, but I do like the sound it makes! And Karajan just sounds right. I've played more recordings by other conductors and orchestras of this symphony than any other Sibelius symphony bar the Second and still come back to this Karajan recording.

Karajan's Seventh I havn't played for a while because I tend to play Maazel's VPO recording, Ashkenazy with the Philharmonia or Sir Colin Davis' recent LSO performance when I want to here this music. So I make no comment on this one.

Karajan's The Swan of Tuonela is also beautifully played and again this is probably the finest Karajan made of this music although his digital recording from the 1980s is also well worth hearing. However, no-one would buy this set just for this performance which although very fine has been available on numerous releases.

This can also be said of Karajan's third and I think his best recording of Tapiola. However, this deserves a closer look. It is better recorded than the first two, although his mono recording with the Philharmonia is truly atmospheric and with greater insight than his last. But there is a great deal of competition amongst recorded Tapiolas. However, I think Karajan and the BPO are supreme in this music: more atmospheric than Davis or Ashkenazy, more chilling than Beecham (stereo with the RPO) which is a superb performance and the closest to matching Karajan.) But who better to invoke the spirits of the dark forces that lurk inside not only an ancient Scandinanian forest but the human soul than Herbert von Karajan? Karajan's storm scene is terrifying and one wonders what members of the orchestra were thinking when they were playing it. The tempi are perfect, the recording ideal. I have never heard a better Tapiola than this.

I was heavily into the "Karajan-cult" in the late 1960s/70s,and have only just starting searching out his recordings again. I know many devotees of classical music find the BPO sound under Karajan's control to be too seamless. But here we have a superb set of recordings. Karajan's credentials as an interpreter of Sibelius's music were first-rate. Listen to these and realise why. The 4th receives a strong, at times magical, touch. This performance of the 5th is the best I have heard, possesssing an indefinable 'something' which lifts it above other, more pedestrian, recordings I have. The 'Swan-Hymn' is wonderfully conveyed, and the end of the last movement becomes one of the most life-affirming pieces of music in the canon. Those who typify Karajan as a 'cold' conductor need to experience this overwhelming climax to a great symphony. The same holds true with the 6th; the whole is beautifully conceived, and the 4th movement, in particular, is almost unbearably emotional, especially the last few bars.(One of Sibelius's marks of greatness, I feel, was his genius for finding fresh solutions and responses to the symphonic form.) The 6th is often overlooked; this recording helps establish it as one of the gems in Sibelius's ouevre. The 7th feels a little restrained compared to the other performances in this double-disc set, but nonetheless here receives a strong, satisfying interpretation. Rounded off with Tapiola and The Swan of Tuonela, this set is such a bargain...and what a feast of music lies within. Highly recommended.

Like others in 'The Originals' series, this set has a liner note that tries a bit too hard to sell the product to us. However it contains one remark, intended to be about the conductor, that actually fits the music itself very well (make allowances for its being a translation) 'This sound-scenario, unclouded either by outpourings from the soul or expressionist rumblings, or by sentimental self-portrayal...' As applied to Karajan I'm not sure that even makes sense: as applied to nearly all the music here I'd say it makes excellent sense. My own idea of the last four Sibelius symphonies is like that - meaning absolutely no disparagement of Mahler or Shostakovich, these are pure 'absolute' music and their symphonies are not. I am not visited by images of Finland when I hear them (perhaps because I have never been there). Still less do they feature outpourings from the soul and whatnot as above. They stay within the bounds of pure 'absolute' music, if 'bounds' is the right word, which I doubt. Absolute music is an infinite universe in its own right, and I hear these four symphonies as the successors to the four symphonies of Brahms in revealing what it can achieve.

If that's how I conceptualise them, then obviously that is also how I listen to these performances. In fact I have owned them on LP for a good many years, but I greatly welcome this economically-priced twin-cd set, which has the great Tapiola thrown in as well, and also The Swan of Tuonela in case anyone wants that. There has been some doctoring of the sound in the process, and you can hear it right at the start. The first note in the basses of symphony # 4 is marked fortissimo, sure, but it does not sound like this from Beecham or Berglund, nor indeed from Uncle Herbert himself on vinyl. I almost thought I must have put on the Brahms D minor concerto by mistake for a moment. Any remaining suggestions of this movement's origins as a string quartet (very marked from Beecham) are completely obliterated, and this fullness of tone pervades the set. The slow movement of # 4 is eloquently handled by Karajan, desolate and comfortless in its opening pages. However as the movement goes on there are sequences for full orchestra, and I shall need more hearings to convince myself that the ripe sound of these really suits the general expression. The start of # 5 is 'homogenised' and smoothed over as before, but the very end of the work starts to put strain on my sense of what kind of music this is. Great technicolour tone certainly, but giving me an uncomfortable sense of an MGM blockbuster.

I think, really, I had better assess this set from two distinct viewpoints, one addressed to Karajan's faithful who will likely not brook much fault-finding, and the other for those who think and feel along anything like the lines I do. From a box-ticking point of view I guess most of the boxes get ticked. This is the great Berlin Phil, and we know how they can play. The sound is excellent of its type, and I may have managed to give some idea of that. Karajan is fully in touch with the idiom of this composer, and he was undoubtedly in many ways the leading conductor of his era. My own slight problem is with where he was leading us to. Even when I was young I thought him a bit of a media maestro, with his speedboats, fast cars, glamorous women and whatnot, especially whatnot I dare say. To this day I can never get out of my mind Beecham's immortal 2-edged gibe 'a kind of musical Malcolm Sargent', and although I find any amount to admire and enjoy in these accounts, my recollection reverts enviously to the performances I have from Beecham himself, and not only Beecham either but also Kajanus between the wars in classic accounts that still manage to sound surprisingly well. Karajan set very high standards, but it was a little too standardised for my own liking.

Symphonies 6 and 7 come off very well (so do 4 and 5, come to that, in case I seem to have hinted otherwise.) In #6 the characteristic `pale' tone is caught exactly, and the speeds are reasonable, much like Berglund's. I mention that point because my collection also includes a classic Finnish account from Schneevoigt in the 1930's that manages to lop 5 minutes off Karajan's timing. That, in a work lasting distinctly less than half an hour, is quite a bit of lopping. With # 7 Karajan excels himself in my own favourite sequence, the marvellous stretch of total euphony that begins after about 2 and ½ minutes and lasts for about 3 more, finally ushering in the solemn trombone theme with an effect like revealing some Holy Grail. This was around 1920, yet here for a few precious moments is the very tone of Beethoven's Lydian Song bestowed on us again.

In The Swan of Tuonela I suppose I can recommend this performance to anyone able to endure the piece. Tapiola is another matter, and to my Category A Karajan devotees I can give the account something like full marks. To my Category B fellow-curmudgeons I have to whisper that it is not in the league of Beecham or Kajanus. And speaking of Kajanus, try to hear how he handles the first movement of # 5, with its sense of low rainclouds scudding across the sky and the wonderful morphing of the first section into the second, the sequence that gave Sibelius more trouble than anything else in his published output.

5 quite honest stars from one point of view, because my own slant on all this is not one that I demand agreement with. However there are heavenly spheres within spheres.