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12.3.24
11.3.24
SIBELIUS : Violin & Piano (2008) Serie The Sibelius Edition – Vol.6 | 5CD BOX-SET | FLAC (tracks+.cue), lossless
The sixth volume in the BIS SIBELIUS EDITION focuses on the composer’s music for violin and piano (and also includes the few works for solo violin). The violin was in fact the composer’s way into music, and during his early youth his main ambition was to become a concert violinist. It is therefore not surprising that, throughout his life, he wrote a number of works for the instrument, including sonatas and suites as well as collections of shorter pieces and independent miniatures. More surprising is how little known Sibelius’s music for violin is – with the shining exception of the violin concerto, of course.
Lovers of that particular work will be pleased to find it included in this set, too, performed with the piano part that the composer himself prepared for publication. (It is a fact that Sibelius made piano transcriptions of many major orchestral works, in which the piano writing is often virtuosic and is clearly designed to be effective in performance.) Sibelius’s transcription of the definitive version is complemented here by the world première recording of a partially reconstructed version for violin and piano of the original 1903–04 score. This is only the second time the original version of the violin concerto has been recorded – the first recording being Leonidas Kavakos’ and Lahti Symphony Orchestra’s pioneering account of it on BIS-CD-500. On the present recording it is the Japanese violinist Madoka Sato (a 1995 prizewinner of the International Sibelius Violin Competition) who takes on the daunting task of performing the work with piano, with the formidable support of Sibelius expert Folke Gräsbeck.
Madoka Sato can also be heard in the other world première recordings included in this volume, while the remaining works are shared by two teams: Jaakko Kuusisto and Folke Gräsbeck concentrating on the youthful works, and Nils-Erik Sparf and Bengt Forsberg appearing mainly in the published pieces. Their performances were highly praised at the time of the release of the original discs, as shown by the following quotes: ‘The soloists, violinist Kuusisto and pianist Gräsbeck, display consummate expertise as partners as well as in their individual expressions’ (Classics Today.com) and ‘Sparf is highly sensitive and imaginative, and he and his accomplished partner make the most of the opportunities this repertoire provides’ (Gramophone). BIS
Tracklist & Credits 
SIBELIUS : Chamber Music II (2009) Serie The Sibelius Edition – Vol. 9 | 5CD BOX-SET | FLAC (tracks+.cue), lossless
In spite of the fact that Sibelius’ chamber music is far less well-known than his orchestral works, it forms a large and important part of his production. In terms of numbers of discs it makes up a fourth of the complete recorded edition being brought out on BIS. Already released are the complete quartets and piano trios [BIS-CD-1903/05] and the works for violin and piano [BIS-CD-1915/17]; the present set focuses on his chamber music for other instrumental combinations and includes a number of world première recordings and previously unreleased material. A substantial chapter is the music for cello (solo and with piano accompaniment), much of which was written for Sibelius’ brother Christian. It is here performed by Torleif Thedéen, with the support of Folke Gräsbeck on the piano. There are also a number of duos and trios for strings, including the brief Vattendroppar (Water Drops) for violin and cello pizzicato, which is often claimed to be Sibelius’ earliest surviving composition, dated to around 1875. Another, more sizeable, rarity is the music to the play Ödlan (The Lizard), scored for string ensemble. Composed in 1909, half way between the Third and Fourth Symphonies, it was once described by Sibelius as ‘one of the most exquisite works that I have written’. This volume also includes Sibelius only work for viola and piano (‘Rondo in D minor’), as well as the world première recordings of two pieces for solo kantele, the traditional Finnish plucked-string instrument which appears in the Kalevala, the Finnish national epos that served as such an inspiration to Sibelius. Another group of works with a specifically Finnish background, are the pieces for ‘torviseitsikko’, a particular combination of seven brass instruments and percussion. These are here performed by members of the eminent German ensemble brasspartout. A varied programme then on this ninth instalment of the acclaimed Sibelius Edition, about which a reviewer in Fanfare has already predicted that it ‘will certainly be considered a landmark in the history of recording’. BIS
Tracklist & Credits 
10.3.24
SIBELIUS : Piano Music II (2010) Serie The Sibelius Edition – Vol. 10 | 5CD BOX-SET | FLAC (tracks+.cue), lossless
Jean Sibelius is known as a great symphonist but he was also a highly skilled and prolific miniaturist who produced short, often aphoristic pieces throughout his life. Although less well-known than his orchestral works, his output for the piano is extensive, and we can now present the second instalment of music for solo piano in the BIS Sibelius Edition. Its predecessor, released as Volume 4 of the edition, presented the piano music that Sibelius composed during his youth and in his national romantic period. The music on this second set was written between 1905 and 1931, and includes the Three Sonatinas, widely seen as some of Sibelius's finest piano works, as well as the five pieces from the composer's Op.75, commonly known as 'The Trees'. Among the several world première recordings in this collection we find an Adagio written for his wife Aino's birthday in 1931, Sibelius's last composition for piano - and his only one for piano four-hands. 'Rakkalle Ainolle' ('To My Beloved Aino') is a mysterious piece, almost devoid of melody as such, but with an astonishingly bold tonal language: might this have been the style of the composer's Eighth Symphony, by then approaching completion and later reportedly destroyed by the composer? Included are also a number of Sibelius' own transcriptions, mainly of music he had composed for stage performances of plays such as Pelléas et Mélisande. A special case in this category is the four minute long reworking for the piano of an original bell melody written in 1912 for Helsinki's newly built Kallio Church. Presenting these close to 6 hours of music is Folke Gräsbeck, who himself has searched the archives, comparing versions and looking for previously unknown pieces. His commitment to the music of Sibelius is close to legendary, and on the basis of the previous volume of piano music alone, his achievement has been described as 'nothing less than heroic' (American Record Guide). Another reviewer, in the magazine Pizzicato, has described his performances as 'both musically and technically impressive; fresh and lively, and with a marked feeling for the dramatic potential of each work.' BIS Tracklist & Credits 
SIBELIUS : Choral Music (2010) Serie The Sibelius Edition – Vol. 11 | 6CD BOX-SET | FLAC (tracks+.cue), lossless
Jean Sibelius' emergence as a composer coincided with the rapid development of choral singing in Finland, at a time when new choirs were being established all over the country. The importance of the genre may be measured by the fact that one of Sibelius's most deeply felt pieces for mixed choir, Män från slätten och havet (Men from Land and Sea), received its first performance by a choir of gargantuan proportions - around 1,300 singers - gathered at a festival in the city of Vaasa in 1912. Choral music also forms an important part of Sibelius' production: besides the present collection of more than 7 hours of music for choir a cappella and with piano or organ accompaniment, there are a large number of orchestral works involving choir. (These are included in volume 3, 'Voice and Orchestra', of this edition.) As a consequence of the division in Finland between Finnish- and Swedish-speakers, Sibelius set texts in both languages, and while a large majority of his solo songs use Swedish texts, in the choral music we find a much larger proportion of settings in Finnish - often, if far from always, of texts from Kalevala, the national epic poem, or its lyric counterpart Kanteletar. Like previous volumes in the SIBELIUS EDITION, the present collection includes not only the published works, but also unpublished pieces, revisions and early versions. Many of these are here recorded for the first time, such as the version with piano of the two choral movements of Kullervo and the reconstruction of the Cantata for the University Graduation Ceremonies of 1897. Other rarities, quite unexpected for those whose knowledge of Sibelius is mainly restricted to his symphonic output, are the two brief arrangements of 'Italian Folk Songs', and the collection of Chorales for mixed choir written during the student years in Helsinki and in Berlin. Performing this wealth of music are some of Finland's finest choirs, with the YL Male Voice Choir and Akademiska Sångföreningen sharing the pieces for male choir, with contributions from their Swedish colleagues in Orphei Drängar. The music for mixed choir is championed by the Dominante and the Jubilate choirs, while most of the piano accompaniments are signed Folke Gräsbeck, whose recordings of Sibelius' complete music for solo piano have just been released. BIS Tracklist & Credits 
SIBELIUS : Miscellaneous Works (2011) Serie The Sibelius Edition – Vol. 13 | 4CD BOX-SET | FLAC (tracks+.cue), lossless
The final volume of the BIS Sibelius Edition is released almost exactly four years after the launch of the project in 2007. A main point of interest in this particular instalment – Miscellaneous Works – is the Masonic Ritual Music, Op.113 – here recorded for the first time with the original texts. Sibelius had become a freemason in 1922, soon after the foundation of the first modern Finnish lodge after the Russian ban on freemasonry in 1809. The music – set for tenor, male-voice choir and organ – was written in response to a request for ‘special, genuinely Finnish music for the lodge’, and for it Sibelius used Finnish texts, including translations from German, Swedish and Chinese. Although the main part of Op.113 was composed in 1927, Sibelius made additions and revisions over the years, and the present performance (which is based on the 1950 edition), thus includes two pieces from 1946 believed to be his last original compositions. Two of the movements in the Masonic Music are for solo organ, and Volume 13 also includes Sibelius remaining solo works for that instrument, such as the striking Surusoitto (‘Mournful Music’) which Sibelius wrote for the 1931 funeral of the painter Gallen-Kallela, a friend of long standing. There are also a number of fragments and sketches included here, for instance of a projected musical adaptation of H.C. Andersen’s tale The Little Mermaid for string quartet and recitation, and a set of brief piano pieces for children. Of particular interest is the more substantial orchestral fragment of a projected tone poem entitled Luonnotar. In 1906 Sibelius had a change of heart, and recomposed much of the material included in the fragment into a new piece, Pohjola’s Daughter. Rounding off the edition on Disc 3 of the four CDs included here is the composer himself, conducting his own Andante festivo in a recording made during a live radio broadcast in 1939. Also on that disc is a video file of the classic ‘Jean Sibelius at Home’ film based on documentary material filmed in 1927 and 1945. As an appendix, a fourth CD contains music by contemporaries, friends and pupils of Sibelius, including Ferruccio Busoni and Robert Kajanus. With this final instalment a separate booklet with the complete index to the recordings and works included in the entire edition is provided, as a key to the 80+ hours of music that form the lifework of Sibelius. BIS Tracklist & Credits 
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