A detailed, dramatic performance
Osmo Vänskä
Minnesota Orchestra
BIS BIS2006
Osmo Vänskä’s first recorded Sibelius cycle, with Finland’s Lahti Symphony Orchestra, was hailed as a major achievement when it appeared over 20 years ago. But this more recent Seventh, recorded in 2016, takes the insights to a new level of perfection. Vänskä’s approach can seem dauntingly literal: he’s a great believer in following Sibelius’s written instructions down to the last detail. But in this case the letter really is the gateway to the spirit. So many conductors seem to struggle with the Seventh Symphony’s finely engineered transitions of tempo and texture. Listening to Vänskä, you might conclude that all you have to do is take Sibelius at his word and the rest will follow.
But of course there’s a good deal more to it than that. Listening to the opening bars, I find myself asking, how does he
In this recording, Vänskä takes his insights to a new level of perfection
make something as simple as a rising crescendo scale sound so eloquent, so full of potential dramatic energy? In the rapt hymn for strings that follows there’s a sense of a controlled, steady rise in background intensity, and yet the foreground is full of finely featured expressive detail – each tiny phrase (I almost said ‘word’) counts. The trombone theme is thrilling in each one of its appearances: through the swirling storm clouds at the heart of the symphony, but best of all at the stunning apotheosis, the singing building majestically, despite the feeling that earth and sky are convulsing around it, and culminating in a spine-chilling whoop from the horns. But there’s also freshness and lightness of touch when needed. Stravinsky praised the ‘Northern Mediterranean’ quality of Sibelius’s melodic writing; the Seventh Symphony’s second dance episode could likewise be described as Nordic Viennese in this finely engineered recording.
Best of all, though, are the final few moments. After the final climax the world holds its breath, then doubt and anguish are dispelled by one last warm echo of the trombone theme. Then comes the final crescendo, in which the two-note falling motif is stretched out in a kaleidoscope of changing orchestral colours: low woodwind, horns, low strings, then violins. No need to worry that the American players might not be able to match the Finns when it comes to colours: no one today understands Sibelius’s paradoxical sound palette – austere yet also rich and complex – better than Osmo Vänskä.