Three Sibelius Symphonies from Stockholm and Sixten Ehrling

Sixten Ehrling

The first recorded cycle of Jan Sibelius' symphonies did not emanate from an internationally acclaimed orchestra, famous conductor or leading label. It was a product of a small record company, the Stockholm orchestra and a young Swedish conductor, 33-year-old Sixten Ehrling.

The orchestra, the Metronome record label and Ehrling began recording the symphonies in January 1952, shortly before they embarked on their famous collaboration on the Violin Concerto with Camilla Wicks. At the time of the concerto sessions in mid-February, Symphonies 1, 3 and 7 had already been taped. Those three symphonies are the basis of today's post.

Symphonies No. 3 and 7

Sibelius himself was still alive when the recordings were made, and it is said that Ehrling met the composer during the session and shared cigars. In a way, the composer and conductor were well matched. It could be said that Sibelius' icy symphonies and Ehrling's famously cold personality suited one another.

But that is too simplistic. The symphonies are in no way monolithic, nor even that icy. Just taking the three symphonies on view here, the third is much different from the romantic first, and both are distinct from the seventh.

Ehrling's readings are intense. The Stockholm orchestra was not at the time a virtuoso ensemble, and only numbered 70-some members. But its musicians follow Ehrling's tempos faultlessly. 

The seventh symphony is notable in being in one movement, with constantly changing tempos and motives. Although it's s striking piece, the danger is that it will come off as shapeless. Ehrling skirts that by never letting the tension slacken.

The Stockholm players do well, although the tuning in the brass is not always exact, nor is there much depth of string tone.

Symphony No. 1

Interestingly, Ehrling does not seem as tense in the first symphony. His tempi in the first movement are moderate although never slack. Similarly, the "Andantino (ma non troppo lento)" second movement is taken at a leisurely pace. On the other hand, the Allegro third movement is suitably quick. And while Ehrling is a cool conductor, he does suggest the emotion underlying the finale. The ending is eloquent without being impassioned.

The critics were generally kind to Ehrling and the orchestra. The first symphony for some reason did not elicit any American reviews, but the coupling of the third and seventh found favor. James Lyons of the American Record Guide said the third was superior to the early recording led by Sibelius' associate Robert Kajanus. The seventh, Lyons opined, "unfolds less smoothly than some and less dramatically than others and still its muscle and lean are as taut as Finnish timber." (Mixed metaphor there, but you get the idea. Critics are apt to cite northern forests when discussing Sibelius. Artists too - check the two covers above.)

The auditorium of the Academy of Music

The reviewers generally praised the sound on these discs, although it is not without fault. As with the other Sibelius recordings from this source, the pitch tends to wander notably, which I have adjusted here (as well as in the earlier post). The sound is good, although not ideally clear. This may be an artifact of the recording method, which involved taping in the relatively compact auditorium of the Royal Academy of Music, then adding room reverberation later on. That was not an unprecedented technique; Columbia used it during this period as well, but because it adds a generation onto the master, it can blunt the impact of the recording and may have contributed to the pitch drift. Even so, the resulting sound here is pleasing. The third and seventh LP is from my collection; the first comes from a lossless transfer on Internet Archive, refurbished for this post.

One further note about the production: although the previous Sibelius issues heard here came out on Capitol in the US, the symphonies were issued by Mercury. In all cases, the recordings were handled by Metronome.

The fifth and sixth symphonies from this cycle are coming up.

Jean Sibelius, in a typically forbidding pose