As if we needed more! Sakari Oramo knows his Sibelius well enough, but there’s nothing about these performances that rises above the routine, especially given the competition. In the Second Symphony, Oramo keeps the symphonic flow of the first movement moving along nicely, but the CBSO brass aren’t terribly impressive in the second movement’s terrifying outbursts, and as so often happens the conductor hasn’t yet figured out how to keep the finale from sounding repetitious. With George Szell’s Concertgebouw recording recently remastered on Philips 50, there’s really no comparison, and certainly no need for duplication.
The Fourth Symphony similarly faces awesome competition from Lorin Maazel’s VPO version on Decca Legends, Osmo Vänskä’s gripping vision on BIS, and others too numerous to mention. As with the Second, it’s not a bad performance by any means, but one that stands out from the pack primarily in negative terms: the slow movement lacks any special sense of mystery or bleakness, and neither strings nor winds distinguish themselves in the finale. Even if you collect Sibelius on principle, there’s nothing here that you probably don’t already have. Irrelevant.
