Search - Jean Sibelius, Yoel Levi, Cleveland Orchestra :: Jean Sibelius: Symphony No. 2; Finlandia

Ravishing

David Saemann | 05/14/2009

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I fully echo D. Seymour's comments, although I would put it rather differently. This was Yoel Levi's second CD for Telarc. The first, selections from Prokofiev's Romeo and Juliet, was recorded in Severance Hall, and the sound was not up to Telarc's high standards. For the Sibelius, Telarc returned to the Masonic Auditorium, where it had made its excellent recordings with Lorin Maazel. The results on this CD are considerably better sonically. The orchestra is well blended, full sounding, and displaying none of the glare typical of early digital sound. In fact, the sound is natural enough that it doesn't call attention to itself. The performance was well worth the engineers' efforts. Levi was in the last year of his Associate Conductorship with the Cleveland, and the Orchestra played for him in a manner we are accustomed to from his Atlanta recordings. It's a very different sound than that accorded Christoph von Dohnanyi. There is great concentration between the sections of the orchestra, and note values are always fully realized. Levi's tempos in the Symphony are slightly brisk, although he can release the reigns in the more lyrical passages. The solo wind and brass playing is outstanding. I especially enjoyed oboist John Mack, reprising his role in George Szell's 1970 concert performance of the Symphony. In sum, given the excellence of the Cleveland Orchestra, this recording is comparable to the vintage accounts of Ormandy in 1957 and Barbirolli's with the Royal Philharmonic. It is less Romantic than those versions, and may as a consequence be better for repeated listening. I played it twice the first night I had it. Finlandia chugs along nicely, but the Symphony is the main feature here."