Bergund Conducts the Popular Sibelius

Today, a stirring and vividly recorded program of popular works by Jean Sibelius, in 1972 performances by the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra under the Finnish conductor Paavo Berglund.

Berglund (1929-2012) was devoted to Sibelius' music, having recorded three cycles of the symphonies during his long career.

Paavo Berglund

Today's recordings were made before his first set of the symphonies, also with the Bournemouth orchestra. Berglund would go on to sets with the Helsinki Philharmonic in the 1980s and the Chamber Orchestra of Europe the following decade.

These particular recordings were first issued in UK Columbia's Studio Two series, which was a rival to UK Decca's better-known Phase 4 releases. They both aimed for big, bold sound with the microphones close to the instrumental choirs. The benefit was clarity; the downside a lack of depth in the soundstage.

Larger-than-life sound surely works well with such pieces as Sibelius' patriotic Finlandia, with its heraldic brass. To me, it also suits the composer's famed Swan of Tuonela, with its important part for the English horn. However, Robert Layton in The Gramophone disagrees: "I think the close balance does not help in The Swan of Tuonela particularly the very opening entry of the lower strings. The upper strings sound too meagre when subjected to so close a scrutiny. This may well serve to rob the opening of some of its magic for I did miss here the feeling of poetic intensity The Swan calls for."

Jean Sibelius circa 1899, when Finlandia was first performed

Layton, an authority on Scandinavian music, was impressed by the disc, however: "The performance of Finlandia has plenty of rumbustiousness and fire, and the Bournemouth orchestra play with evident enthusiasm, as indeed they do in Lemminkäinen's Return. This had really splendid dash and attack and ... is really one of the most vivid and spirited versions of it we have had on LP for a very long time. 

"The three movements from the King Christian Suite are all given unfussy, straightforward readings that can be strongly recommended even though the recording balances the wind too closely for my taste in the 'Musette'."

I transferred this disc on request because it is encoded in SQ quadrophonic form, a four-channel format that had a brief vogue in the 1970s. (Discs such as these were stereo compatible.) This pressing is on the German Electrola label.

LINK

Ad in The Gramophone; I don't think the photo pertains to Sibelius