Review: Another "Essential" Box--Sibelius This Time--And It Really Is!
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- Опубликовано: 6 окт 2024
- After DG's dreadfully confounding "New Complete Essential Beethoven" foolishness, it was a pleasure to see an "essential" collection done right. Taken from BIS's 68-disc complete Sibelius Edition, this attractively priced 15-disc selection does a splendid job in giving us the best of Sibelius in all of the media in which he worked--along with a sensible booklet containing complete track listings, notes, sung texts and (English) translations. Way to go, BIS!
Hi Dave, I've had this box for years. Your right this is how labels should produce their product. It contains all the sibelius most folks will need. Exploring the choral and smaller works was a joy! Also, its quality package and booklet, as you point out.
Paul G
This talk almost makes me wish I needed this box, but I'm one of those obsessive nerds who felt compelled to amass each volume of BIS's complete edition (ya gotta complete the panoramic photograph spanning the boxes' spines!).
Thanks, Dave--got this years ago and was very satisfied and you are correct--this is how it's done!!
As a pianist, I don’t think Sibelius is all that un-pianistic, and considering how much he wrote for it, there’s a lot of good stuff.
That's great to hear!
well Glenn Gould loved it enough to devote a disc to it.and included the 5th as one of his desert island discs.
I am convinced…it goes on my Christmas list. I have been reveling in your Sibelius recommendations for months.
Indeed!
I really enjoyed watching this review. Then I bought the box. I've only dipped into it so far, 3rd symphony, and already know that the performances are better than any I currently have. This will bring me so many hours of pleasure. Thank you.
Glad you enjoyed it!
I have that BIS set, I bought it several years ago, it is marvellous and yes it is an essential Sibelius box set. That is a great recommendation, well done David.
This set is AMAZING. Between this and Segerstam's recordings - both constitute my most played Sibelius. The only thing missing is the early edition of Spring Song, which I prefer to the revised version. A minor quibble - it's a crazy great set. I love the Lemminkainen here actually, but that's me.
Wow! I’m happy with the Sibelius collection that I have. But I gotta have this box!!!
I am grateful for the review. I have had this box since it first came out and loved it for audiophile reasons. Good to know what you think.
BIS seems to have approaches this like a scholarly project - good on them!
Well, it's BIS, not DG. DG is about $$$ first (as all of the Universal family). Not BIS.
BIS was the vision of one person. Similar to other independent labels.
This is indeed an excellent box, especially with the lesser known repertoire included, it's also an economical way to get Vänskä's Lahti SO symphony cycle, which costs only a little more than the stand alone volume in the Sibelius edition. I feel that the the Sibelius edition never seemed quite to get the recognition it deserves, to my mind it is as every bit as significant as the Gardiner or Suzuki Bach Cantata editions.
I agree.
BIS is a first class act 👍
I did not know The Wood Nymph, so I listened to it after your mention. Very enjoyable. Thank you.
The opening pages of the Wood Nymph are really good but owe a lot to the Wagner influence that Sibelius decided forego to follow his own path and inclination.
A generous selection of the songs with piano but they managed to omit my favorite -- Hertig Magnus. Drat!
Yes, a great box that, when it came out in 2006, did much to make me a lover of Sibelius. A good combination of the "essential" and the "special, but little known."
Great video as always , thanks David.
Thanks, Dave, for showing us--and maybe the folks at Universal/DG--what a really good "essential edition" looks like. One need look no further than the recently issued Warner Saint-Saens box, which you reviewed, for another instance of how it can be done. Universal was complining better essential editions, under different names, a decade ago, I have a wonderful Handel box, issued by Decca ("The Masterworks") that really does contain something like "the best" of that composer's vast output. Included are all the major orchestral works (Water and Fireworks musics, Opus 3 and 6 concertos, organ concertos, oboes concertos), a judicious selection of chamber works, early choral works, the Ode for St. Cecelia's Day, six of his greatest oratorios, though only one opera (Julius Ceasar). All of the performances are first rate, by the likes of St. Martin's Academy, Pinnock and the English Concert, Gardiner's ensemble, etc. This set is a model of how to provide a Handelian novice with a very comprehensive "starter collection." There need to be more of these.
Oma Maa (My Native Land) should be there, if not. An astonishing choral work for choirs & orchestra with moments of ineffable beauty. As for his piano works being condemned with feint praise, I think today's musicians are ignoring the critics and looking there for repertoire with many compositions being transposed to other instruments (see RUclips). Sib's 6 piano impromptus, especially Nos 1,5 and (illegal substance?) 6 are (IMO) wonderful listening. The Spruce from The Trees I have heard as encore in piano recitals played by unlikely artists. And if you listen to no Sib piano, at least listen to his Romance in D flat Major (Opus 24, No 9) Fabulously romantic music where he out-Schumanns Schumann. This week I've discovered his Christmas song for choir & orchestra (RUclips) and it's had almost a million hits, and I can see instantly why though I can't understand a single word of it. Also Etude, Opus 76, No. 2.
I couldn’t agree more. One of the best box sets of all.
Essential Hans Knappertsbusch is on the way ?
That's easy: Parsifal, Parsifal, Parsifal, Parsifal, Parsifal, Parsifal, Parsifal, Parsifal, Parsifal, and of course, Parsifal. That about does it.
For those who, like me, aren't fond of Wagner, an empty box will do just fine.
Deems Taylor would proud!
What? No Maiden in the Tower?! 😄
No, but you do get the woodchuck in the basement.
Seems like a great collection, but I'm surprised by a couple of choices. Why include the A minor string quartet rather than the B-flat Major from just a few years later and (I think) the better piece of the two? And why the D Major piano trio rather than the C Major ("Lovisa") which again, I think is a better piece?
Regarding Sibelius' piano music, it isn't really all that idiomatic for the piano in the sense of how Sibelius uses the hands and what he asks them to do. However, from a listener's point of view some of it is astonishingly effective and attractive. Havard Gimse on Naxos has shown that much of this IS good (though rarely great) music and helps to complete the listener's idea of who Sibelius was as a composer. Granted, it's more a case of "adding a few details" to the picture rather than broad brush-strokes, but it's nice to have them.
It was SO much fun though, to hear your vituperation directed toward the Beethoven box!
"Lovisa" is there. No more carping!
First new day, first sarcastic wit