Not since the days of Hannikainen
Doug - Haydn Fan | California | 09/27/2005
(5 out of 5 stars)
"For many years I have treasured a recording of this work on an absolutely impossible to find Russian LP - I found it in a little odds and ends shop out in the Russian District of San Francisco. The conductor of this much earlier performance of the Sibelius Four Legends was Tauno Hannikainen and the orchestra, if you would believe it, was the USSR Radio Symphony. Hannikainen conducted under Rodzinski in the late 40's in Chicago, then became first conductor of the Helsinki Municipal Orchestra. Hannikainen recorded this piece sometime in the monaural era and his performance has remained largely untouched for all these many years.
What's that saying, "It takes a thief to catch a thief?" The fine modern composer Leif Segerstam here has caught the old master, and with the native Helsinki orchestra instead of the Russians, offers up a marvelously informed performance of this sprawling, wonderful musical epic. Segerstam's attention to Sibelius' evocative writing for woodwinds and the easy familiarity the orchestra's string players enjoy with the score's every phrase are thrilling. Sibelius played by Finns - what a great idea!
I rarely give five stars, but this is just wonderful music-making."
Segerstam makes early Sibelius and late sound like genius
Santa Fe Listener | Santa Fe, NM USA | 10/14/2007
(5 out of 5 stars)
"Once you've discovered Leif Segerstam -- not the easiest thing to do on this side of the Atlantic -- no one else seems as satisfying in Sibelius. Segerstam brings the intensity and insight of a fellow composer (as Britten brings to Schumann and Elgar, or Knussen to Stravinsky). His Sibelius symphony cycle is ecstatic and sinewy, tough and heartbreakingly lyrical at the same time. These same virtues are applied to the Lemminkanen Suite, which despite its neglect outside Finalnd lays claim to being the composer's greatest work before the Sym. #2 and the Violin Concerto.
I'd only heard one convincing version before this, under Vassily Sinaisky with the Moscow Phil. That's a wonderful recording, but it pales beside the passion of Segerstam's performance, which is nothing less than hair-raising. I doubt that anyone could hear it without being galvanized. Two episodes -- The Swan of Tuonela and Lemminkanen's REturn -- have long overshadowed the other two "legends," so called becasue of their source in the Finnish national epic, the Kalevala. ONce united, however, the heroic effect far exceeds the name of a suite -- this is a huge tonal mural.
Turning to late Sibelius, Segerstam unravels the bleak mysteries of Tapiola with equal conviciton. I hipe his efforts don't get merged with the countless other Sibelius recordings form Finland. This is world class music-making, beautifully recorded by Ondine."
