SIBELIUS : Chamber Music I (2007) Serie The Sibelius Edition – Vol.2 | 6CD BOX-SET | FLAC (tracks+.cue), lossless

 Tracklist & Credits

SIBELIUS : Theatre Music (2008) Serie The Sibelius Edition – Vol.5 | 6CD BOX-SET | FLAC (tracks+.cue), lossless

Tracklist & Credits 

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

SIBELIUS : Symphonies (2011) Serie The Sibelius Edition – Vol. 12 | 5CD BOX-SET | FLAC (tracks+.cue), lossless

The first chapter in the BIS Sibelius Edition contained some of the Finnish master’s most celebrated works, his Tone Poems. In the ten volumes that have been released after that, we have presented various less known aspects of Sibelius: the composer of chamber works and piano music, the miniaturist, even as the author of an opera. With the present instalment, the 12th and penultimate, we return to a genre for which he is particularly celebrated, namely the symphonic. The Seven Symphonies are undisputed treasures of 20th-century music which have fascinated great conductors and international audiences alike. They are here presented in performances by Osmo Vänskä, described in American Record Guide as ‘the Sibelius interpreter de nos jours’, and the eminent Lahti Symphony Orchestra, whose principal conductor he was for 20 years. The team’s recordings of the symphony cycle has been described as ‘towering head and shoulders over the competition’ in the French magazine Répertoire, and on the website Classical Source as being ‘almost universally recognised as the best of the digital age’. As these recordings now are given pride of place in the Sibelius Edition, they are complemented by alternative versions and fragments which provide a fascinating background to the final versions. The most substantial of these is the original version of Symphony No.5, available only in this recording, which upon its original release in 1996 not only received a Gramophone Award for its technical qualities but also was described by the same magazine’s reviewer as ‘one of the most important and above all interesting records to have appeared for many years.’ Also unique for BIS are the recordings of the remaining supplementary material, made under the supervision of the violinist and conductor Jaakko Kuusisto and released here for the first time. Besides a number of short fragments which illustrate the decision-making process of the composer’s creative mind in detail, it also includes preliminary versions of three complete movements: the scherzos from Symphonies Nos 1 and 4, and the second movement of Symphony No.3. In the accompanying booklet (numbering 128 pages), Sibelius expert Andrew Barnett guides us through this central chapter in Sibelius’ œuvre – an occasion not to be missed! 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