Having endured the abyss of interpretive mediocrity and poor orchestral execution better known as the “classic Anthony Collins 1950s LSO Sibelius cycle”, it’s a huge relief to turn to Eduard van Beinum and the Concertgebouw and hear a genuinely gifted conductor at the helm of a major orchestra (or, in the case of the Violin Concerto, with the LPO, an okay orchestra made to sound good by a genuinely gifted conductor). Recorded between 1953-1958, this series of tone poems has everything that’s lacking in the exactly contemporaneous Collins Decca recordings: atmosphere, musical insight, and superior playing. En Saga begins slowly, but with exceptional attention to detail, and rises to a thrilling climax (even if the engineers fail to capture the bass drum). Tapiola practically oozes menace thanks to the Concertgebouw’s rich, dark, low woodwinds. Valse triste is, well, triste, and Finlandia is truly uplifting.
Jan Damen was concertmaster of the Concertgebouw under Beinum, and the two collaborate on a well-prepared, slightly cool reading of the Violin Concerto with an unusually well-integrated relationship between orchestra and soloist. This first movement comes across as unusually gripping, and I admire the refusal to slow down the lyrical second subject to the point where it turns into sentimental syrup. Only a slightly sluggish finale lets the performance down somewhat, but there’s certainly nothing to criticize in Damen’s playing from a technical point of view.
Thomas Jensen’s performance of the Lemminkäinen Suite also has its points of interest. His emphasis on keeping the woodwinds forwardly balanced allows many interesting details of texture to register, particularly the piccolos in the central development section of Lemminkäinen and the Maidens of Saari, here played with tremendous excitement. The Swan of Tuonela is also quite swift–less than eight minutes–but Lemminkäinen’s Return could have more rhythmic heft, and Lemminkäinen in Tuonela, the most difficult movement to bring off, has little of the necessary impact. Still, this collection as a whole gives a much better impression of 1950s Sibelius than Collins, or indeed many other “historical” releases whose only claim to significance lies in the fact that they exist at all.
