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I really love this piece and indeed most of Vaughan Williams work. The oboe has such a mellifluous and tender tone which makes it quite beautiful to hear

Magnífica versión de la Turku p. Y espléndido L.sergerstam en la conducción de la 4 J.S.❤

!!!bravooo!!! T.PO. brillante performance de la 5 PIT.una de mis preferidas de este compositor ruso.congratulations 🎉❤

Gracias Turku Philarmonic por tan hermosos conciertos como ésta de Zoltan Koday, Sibelius, etc.exeltente orquesta ❤.

Hermoso regalo 😍🎁 la música de Sibelius es muy buena sobre todo cuando es bien interpretadas por buenas orquesta como esta la Turku filarmmonie orchester y la exelente dirección del maestro Leif Segerstam.thanks.❤

Absolutely magnificient ! As all the symphonies in this wonderful series.

Absolutely beautiful. I always love Segerstam's take on Sibelius symphonies, although I do feel like he tried to treat it a bit like Mahler in parts, and despite the slower than average tempo, still seemed rather impatient. Honestly I quite enjoyed this interpretation, it just felt uneasy, moreso than the music already is. Like he wasn't sure how to tackle something so constrained. But ultimately a great rendition.

Excellent! Thank you!

Fantastic! Thank you! Greetings from Washington USA

Rest in peace, you will be remembered.

Thank you three Trombones. This No.7 is a majestic work that gives us the image of Nordic gods heading towards the northern seas.

Gracias maestro Leif sergestam🎉🎉🎉 1:28:46

Exquisito sublime interpretación, que gran orquesta magnífico director de esta magistral obra schowtakoviniana leningrade sinphony 7.gracias por compartir ❤

The best complete series of Sibelius symphonies available. Marvellous, from this first to the seventh !

Ist movement is too slow for my liking, but interesting nonetheless.

Absolutely thrilling!

Babbo Natale great maestro

RIP.

The American 'composer' and critic Virgil Thompson called this symphony ".... vulgar and provincial" -- but do we hear anything of VT's music now? Or his professorial papers? As for "provincial", well did the 'also-ran' realize what he was saying? Henry James must have been absent from VT's reading list. Certainly this longest of Sibelius's symphonies can sound pompous in the last movement when conductors emphasize the melodic, anthem-like secondary theme over the primary one. The whole work is built on 3 ascending notes played at the very start and this motif has organic offshoots throughout all movements but in permutations which are quite complex and these can be dying away as new ones begin and overlap. There are busy or extended fugal foundations when this happens and the transition from the 3rd to last movement carries this structure without a pause or (as some conductors choose) a very short pause. The whole of the 4th movement is multi-fugal and the first and second motifs sometimes meet up and at other times don't. This makes best sense if one considers Bruckner's 5th symphony and its unusual "agenda" which still puzzles many. Sibelius had shaken off Tchaikovsky devices by Op.43 and his love of Bruckner informed but did not unduly influence orchestration or harmony -- and Sibelius stretches the latter quite a bit. Performed at indicated speeds, with truly musical players and conducted by someone who puts research and preparation into action, this symphony is big, majestic and intellectually satisfying. The late Leif Segerstam had the lot and we are so lucky to have these live performances of his late years, afflicted by illness, with his belovéd Turku orchestra. He had begun with the old Turku orchestra as a young man, conducted much more famous orchestras in three continents and returned to his native area of the Bothnian coast when he became restricted in mobility. He argued that as long as his mind and musicality were not compromised there was no need to retire from conducting and he chose the Turku P.O. as the players chose him. He honed many principal musicians into world standard and several returned to Turku to be under his baton because he saw conducting as being equivalent to being IN the orchestra. Leif Segerstam died in October 2024 at the age of 80.

Sibelius agonized about when to embark upon publishing actual symphonies and did not do so until he had a good reputation which had begun to reach outside Finland. What became Op.39 had mostly been sketched and orchestrated as early as the first of the '4 Legends' Op.22 and even then he played safe by sounding like Tchaikovsky with a few shades of Bruckner and not (as Kajanus and Beecham said) showing enough of himself. That is a valid point but doesn't detract from the quality of the work as a symphony. However, Sibelius's genius use of woodwind from Symphony No 3 and thereafter hints at weaknesses in woodwinds (except the clarinet and bassoon) as part of the meat of the work. Just having 2 flutes and passing lower notes to clarinets against such rich string forces leaves a hole which Sibelius did not revise, possibly due to publishing costs. The late Leif Segerstam here got around the missing high middle by quietening the violins quite a bit and keeping the viola dynamics constant. As a violist himself (hear him in his own quartets where possible) he knew what he was doing. His belovéd Turku local team play magnificently in every way. This is a world class orchestra.

kiitos

The late Leif Segerstam was probably the best Sibelius conductor of his generation and avoided the failings of some other conductors tipping into this century. His approach was to use original autograph scores in his research and preparation and sometimes he conducted from facsimile copies of these in performance. When doing so his 'ceremony' was to lay a hand on the score before mounting the podium then again after stepping down. LS wanted to show that every note was there for a reason and sometimes he used notes by the composer in pencil which do not occur in plain editions. These usually related to tempi of motifs in repeated forms and scored the same but having a different role in the whole piece's journey and how some violins and violas should be played in a seemingly unison section. Sibelius was a violinist, as was Elgar and both used these devices. Where Segerstam succeeds especially well in this performance with "the home band" is in unifying pieces which were written over quite a long period earlier in his mature voice development and only later collected into a whole as Op.22. In earlier works Sibelius sometimes published 'safer' works while working on these more private ones, basically to establish his music as being worth playing and he had to watch the pennies too. A state grant was not given until around the time of his 3rd symphony and the very strange 4th would not have been as we know it had he been obliged to make it less nihilistic. Those who say that Segerstam doesn't look at the musicians are plain wrong. His way was always to ensure that were ready and before a challenging passage he would also look at the relevant players out of encouragement or readiness or because he saw the role of conductor as being part of the ensemble. Having begun with the Turku orchestra (he hailed from further north in the Bothnia region), Segerstam conducted some of the world's most prestigious orchestra but has special affection for the younger version of the Turku P. O., which others had refined from his early days. The endocrine disease which afflicted him from before the age of 70 made mobility difficult and he was supported by his family in refusing to retire until and unless his musicianship was affected. It never was and died aged 80 in October 2024. With such a disabling illness it made sense to domestically "retire" to home ground and we are privileged to have his final years conducting Sibelius (definitively?) with the astonishing Turku Phil, whose personnel (I am told) tended to remain to learn and make music with Leif Segerstam. Other approaches to Op.22 which are well worth hearing are Ormandy with the Philadelphia and Alexander Gibson with the SNO.

1:22 the flutes motif disappear ! ( d, c, d, f, b ) we just hear d and b ...

RIP Maestro Segerstam

While it is said by some that no good orchestra will make a mess of this symphony, it is much rarer for there to be a truly great performance as the composer intended. This is probably the greatest I have heard in my 75 years. The late Leif Segerstam was a supreme scholar of Sibelius as well as being a world class conductor with many much more prestigious orchestras than the Turku but he had started his main career with the Turku (being almost a local lad from just up the Bothnia Gulf) and returned to it in the years of ill health which would have bowled out a less determined musician. There are parallels with Sir Adrian Boult (whose Brahms live performances Segerstam treasured). There are some shades of Kajanus and Jensen in his Sibelius 5, especially with the Helsinki orchestra but Segerstam preferred live to recorded when digging deep into Sibelius and it paid off in this magnificent rendition. While prima face seeming like a quite melodic and optimistic work, the 5th caused the composer more headaches than his other 'true voice' ones from 3 to 7 and underwent at least 3 revisions top to toe. Having puzzled audiences with the beautiful nihilism of the 4th, Sibelius was asked to make #5 more accessible, not just by the home establishment (which paid him quite a large life pension) but also Kajanus, Toscanini and his close friend Sir Thomas Beecham, who was probably his main champion in the west when Finland was still seen perceived to be a mysterious neighbor of mighty Russia. The challenge made sense to Sibelius because he realized that the 4th was abstract another side of his character was Finnish nationalism and use of home grown traditions. What was a bit tricky was that the composer was brought up and educated in the Swedish speaking part of Finland and had studied in Germany thus he had to learn the Finnish language and mythology when a working adult -- usually hard up and playing in small orchestras to pay for his cigars and liquid partying. He learned quickly and became 'hooked' on antecedents of the Kalevala then trudged around Karelia and the far north in search of genuine Finnish folk music. Given that Finland had been ping-ponged between Sweden and Russia for centuries and had a very small population this was difficult. Like Vaughan William and Holst, Sibelius composed sketched approximations. There was nothing bogus in this and his love of Finnish nature and rural life had musical consequences in the development of organic or cellular elements from the third symphony (with its Haydnesque proportions) and most later music except 'incidental music' for theater use. The concept of the symphony remained 'orthodox' in his mind but the sounds and organization of orchestral sections into an analogy of sub-"choirs". This also came from his love of Palestrina yet Sibelius did not write all that much for voices. What he referred to as 'the torture' of the 5th symphony arose from some very strong themes/motifs with their own harmonic context being crafted into a symphonic entity and he considered using stronger elements for symphonic poems instead. After much trying and burning the results Sibelius hit upon the idea of 3 sections or movements instead of 4, with a clear break after the first then the 2nd having a clear coda but almost immediately launching into the last, complex, movement. He wanted to carry the contrapuntal aspects of the 1st movement into the last and did so by using 1st, 2nd and 3rd "subjects" which might be hard to master but which would have a rhythmic drive which the conductor could adjust according to the competence of the musicians. Sibelius also wanted the 5th to be his 'calling card' to the USA via Koussevitsky and his Boston S.O. which the composer had not heard. Beecham assured him that the Boston band's prowess with modern French music made it precise. In this amazing performance Segerstam "shows the working out" and the pauses between movements are as intended. Although tempi are mostly a shade slower than some conductors choose, Segerstam intently stares at what appears to be a well-worn score and when the strings incline to speed up in some places he gestures accordingly and gives them "the look". This is not a string-heavy symphony and Karajan and Maazel seem to want it to be with the BPO and VPO (no surprises there) but the 5th symphony is scored with light strings (5 basses only) and there is doubling in the winds. Flute duets occur in all movements and horns with trombones share fugal figures. Segerstam gives the full weight and fugal parts mixed with layering which the composer revised the least and in order to have the best sonic experience this movement has a consistent tempo kept by the winds, allowing the timpani to be quasi soloists and this is sometimes missed by conductors and engineers alike. This whole performance (minor fluffs and audience noise) is as good as Sibelius 5th has been played and recorded as far as I know.

Cuanto más veces oigo esta fantástica música, más me cautiva. No es milagro.... con esta orquesta y con este maestro al mando!!!

The first movement of this work is elemental: it contains the soul of Finland - its Land, Air, Fire, and Water. It thrills me

Standing ovation pour Segerstam et son TPO qui le méritent bien ! Sibélius est magnifiquement servi ! Merci de nous offrir un tel partage !

Thompson Sarah Thomas Sharon Thomas Timothy

RIP

Rest in peace, Leif<3

Rip the great Segerstam, one of the very best interpreters of Sibelius.

I love how the audience don't clap till they see the conductor has declared the work over

RIP Leif Segerstam

Maestro Segerstam, RIP.

R.I.P. Leif Segerstam

31:59

RIP Leif Segerstam ♥ I met you at the Metropolitan Opera in 1974, you were gracious and so kind. An outstanding musician who the world will miss. RIP ♥

Slipped Disc just announced that he is gone. RIP maestro.

🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉

👏👏👏👏👏👏

Watching and listening to

😅 ⋯⋯wow everything is staccato-ed This is not Beethoven …

Amazing!! Sibelius always rocks!!! The more one listens to his works, the more one loves it.

To je predivna muzika....!

Dajte nam Baaryokove Rumunske igre!

28:22 この練習番号Jのfffでここまで急減速する演奏に接したのは初めてです。驚きました。

Mesmerising

Fabulous. We are rehearsing this in my local orchestra ( Canterbury Symphony Orchestra) and I am enchanted by this performance. Well done.

The true Jesus of conductors, doing Sibelius proud!