After a long, stupid, and debilitating strike, the Minnesota Orchestra is back sounding basically as it did previously, which means very good. That doesn’t mean that the ensemble projects an ideal Sibelius idiom; the woodwinds, in particular, lack both presence as recorded, and personality as performers. Vänskä’s Sibelius remakes in general have not been successful, for all the positive attention they have gotten from those who care more about the names of the artists than the sounds that they actually make. His interpretations tend to be either very fast or very slow, very loud or very soft–in other words, disfigured by mannerism.
This particular release is definitely the best of the lot, if only because the music itself doesn’t offer as much opportunity for quantum fluctuations in tempo and volume. Still, the middle movement of the Third Symphony is surely too slow, as is the first movement of the Sixth. The glorious adagio at the start of the Seventh is too soft, too lacking in body, even though that work goes best of all, with dazzling playing in the fastest passages and some beautifully executed transitions. Certainly Vänskä knows and understands this music. He pays great attention to details of accent and articulation, particularly in the string section, and the players respond to him with enthusiasm, but he also seems more concerned with drawing attention to himself then to creating that organic sense of flow of which Sibelius was such a master.
As a cycle, then, these performances are certainly all of a piece, but they remain unconvincing and studied, disappointing as compared to this conductor’s excellent and equally provocative (but in a good way) earlier Lahti recordings. Don’t waste your money.
