Looks like Naxos will be rolling out another Sibelius recording with the New Zealand S.O. conducted by Pietari Inkinen. You can see the recording at the following link (scroll down towards the bottom of the page):

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This one looks pretty loaded...I'm already chomping at the bit.

If Inkinen's recording of the two Scenes historiques Suites and King Christian are any indication of the quality of this ensemble's recordings, we're in for a BIG treat.

Can't wait...

Thanks for the tip Tapkaara, Iv'e not heard Inkinen's Sibelius but from what you say I will try and look it up. I see that Inkinen has conducted some Sibelius with the Japan Philharmonic this year.-kp

Well, I received this new Naxos CD and, may I say, I love it.

Pietari Inkinen conducts the great New Zealand Symphony Orchestra in performances of Night Ride and Sunrise, Pan and Echo, suite from Belshazzar's Feast, Two Pieces for Orchestra and music from Kuolema.

I've listened to it twice, and I feel that these are the best recordings of Night Ride and Sunrise and Belshazzar's Feast that I've ever heard. There is much freshness, clarity and youth in young Inkinen's music making. He is not going through the motions here, he is playing the music like it's a world premiere.

Everything else, needless to say, is very well done here. The music from Kuolema is splendid, especially a deliciously haunting Scene with Cranes. The Dyrad, Pan end Echo, Dance Intermezzo...all played with flair and vitality.

The sound is awesome. Crystal clear sonics, yet rich and quite warm. My only quibble is the occasional pianissimo (in Valse triste, for example) that is SO pianissimo that, even at a high level on good speakers, the music is veeeeery quiet. (Even extreme pianissimos are more audible than this in any concert hall with decent acoustics.)

I am very excited about this conductor. His previous (and debut) Sibelius recording on Naxos (King Christian, Scenes historiques I and II) is another triumph in sound and interpretation. He is to be commended for not immediately recording better known works but, instead, making public some of the master's lesser known (under-appreciated?) works available with attractive performances and an accessible price.

Once he gets done shining the spotlight on some of these Sibelius 'rarities,' I would love to hear a symphony cycle tackled by this conductor and orchestra. Or some of the standard tone poems: Tapiola, En Saga, etc.

My sincerest recommendation for Inkinen's Sibelius on Naxos. Let's hope there is much more to come!!

Well Tapkaara as said it all! I picked this Cd up over Christmas and it is indeed first rate. The 'Scene with Cranes' is magical and 'Belshazzar' a joy. I thought that the 'Nightride' was in danger of dragging slightly at one point [Sibelius holds on to that trochaic rhythm for quite some time] but still a wonderful performance. Sanderling and Jochum remain my first choice in this tone poem but Inkinen is a name to watch and I too look forward keenly to a Sibelius Symphony cycle from him.-kp

I can only agree with the positive comments above. In every respect this is a seriously good Sibelius disc - as was the previous one from this source.

I much enjoyed Inkenen's latest disc as I did his Scenes historiques disc. I hope this disc may win an award or two but being a Naxos disc it probably won't. Like others in this great forum I do hope Inkinen goes on to do more Sibelius.

May I just take the opportunity to wish all in the forum a a happy and Sibelius filled new year.

Hi Ianmaxx!

I see you have made a few posts before but this is the first time I've seen you. Please allow me to welcome you to our many discussions!

Glad you are also a fan of Pietari Inkinen. He has the potential to be a Sibelian of the highest order.

I again listend to Night Ride and Belshazzar today, and, yup, these are really winning performances. Great sound too.

I've read the multiple posts on this thread hoping that Inkinen makes a Sibelius cycle, and it made me wonder a bit... Naxos almost never makes duplicate recordings of any given piece, so I've heard, and they already have two Sibelius cycles. A third would be really interesting from them, I think.

No, I haven't heard this CD, but seeing how it's pretty well unanimously an amazing disc I may well go for it.

Yup, it's true, Naxos does not like to repeat repertoire. However, if Inkinen's Sibelius continues to be popular, and well-reviewed, I don't see what would stop Naxos from going forward if they new they had a potential hit on their hands...they are in this for the money, too...you know?!

Sibelius is a popular composer and his symphony cycles usually tend to sell well, I think, so I think there is hope.

True, but I wouldn't mind at all if Inkinen continues to give us good recordings of the lesser-known pieces first. Of course we do have good recordings of almost everything by Osmo Vänskä and others, but it's always nice to have a choice.

Indeed there are already great recordings of this music that have been around for a while now, but Inkinen is really something special, I think.

Over a year ago, Naxos announced the realease of a disc featuring, among other things, Pelleas et Melisande with Frenchman Patrick Gallois and the Finlandia Ensemble. The disc was never released, per se, but it is available for download on Naxos's "Classics Online" webpage. I'd like to hear this, but I'll wait for the actual release, assuming it happens. I haven't joined the music download bandwagon yet.

I'm pretty sure I have seen the CD in the shops - either here in England or in Finland. I haven't heard it, though.

Hmmm, must not be available in the US then. Naxos does that often: they releas certain titles in some countries (usually Europe) but not here. I'll have to look for it on Amazon UK or something.

Coming back to Inkinen's Sibelius, I just had to say how much the little tone poem or picture 'Pan and Echo has grown in my estimation since listening to this recording. It seems to contain so much of Sibelius's different facets. The very opening depicting Pan and Echo on the hill, so peaceful. We have a marvellous Sibelian/Brucknerian yearning on the strings-so evocative. Woodwind introduce an irresistable patter that is pure Sibelius. The music builds up to a wild climax that is wonderfully scored.
This music is another departure from the Kalevala, evoking Greek legend which he was to turn to in a number of other pieces. Sibelius made a very good piano transcription as well. It was none other than Robert Layton who described Pan and Echo as a lightweight work--I wonder.-kp

Lightweight in terms of duration only, maybe. Some of the scoring gets rather thick in the louder passages. One minor criticism I have of the Inkinen performance is that some details of balance are rather muffled – for instance the important oboes in thirds 5 bars after C, echoing the violins four bars earlier [at 3'36" on this recording], or the descending horn motifs 6 bars and 2 bars before E [at 4'21"/4'25"]; the rising flute/clarinet motif 9 before D is also a little lacking in elegance, I feel, because they don't make enough of the marked crescendo and so you don't hear the final flourish [3'51"].

It's a great little piece, though, with bags of character, really colourful scoring (not always rhythmically easy for the wind players unless they are thoroughly rehearsed) and a wide range of moods that are still nicely held together within the short timeframe. Maybe its relative brevity discourages people from programming it (hint hint, Kurki…); I think the only time I have heard the orchestral version live was at a concert in Leeds by the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra under the late Vernon Handley. There it was rather evidently a makeweight between larger works, and somewhat under-rehearsed, but still very appealing.

Andrew, what did you think of Inkinen's Night Ride and Belshazzar specifically? As I mentioned, these are likely my two favorite recordings of those works. Your opinion would be most interesting...

Pretty good on the whole. In NR/S (unlike Kullervopete) I didn't find a lack of tension even though the tempo for the ride is quite steady - but I know that Pete likes some rather faster performances. Maybe the whole thing could have done with a greater exploitation of the extremes of dynamic. For me, this piece must use the full dynamic range as part of its coloristic armoury, and on a recording it's often necessary to exaggerate it further. I don't think Naxos has compressed the dynamics artificially (at least, I would be disappointed if a record company did so in this day and age).

In BF – and I don't know whether this is intentional – Inkinen plays the score as 'Sibelius with an Middle Eastern twist' rather than 'Middle Eastern with a Sibelian twist'. By which I mean that the sonority he achieves is closer to 'normal' Sibelius, with less emphasis on the pictorial details than I have usually heard elsewhere - a softer focus, maybe. Perhaps this too is partly as result of the quite large-scale recording quality. At any rate, it is convincing when played this way. Putting on my hypercritical hat (yeah, I know, I rarely take it off), I wish that some of the atmospheric passages had been even quieter – more 'magical' and less 'present'. And in Khadra’s Dance I think more should have been done to bring out the metrical anomaly in the flute's rising+falling scales. The first time this occurs it is offset by one quaver, and unless it is carefully phrased the listener loses track of where the beat comes - and so the last note sounds as if it's a quaver early. The second time this figure appears, it is in the 'expected' place. [Same in the da capo, of course.] It's a nice little trick on Sibelius's part, but hard to bring off in performance. Overall, though, I like this performance quite a lot.

Well, Andrew, you certainly know these scores inside and out! I suppose if one has the intimimate knowledge you have, these sorts of things stand out.

Speaking as someone with far less technical insight into the music, I was thouroughly pleased with the rich recorded sound and the spirit of the performances. There is something about Inkinen's Sibelius that just sounds honest...that just sounds right. I appreciate this very much.

At any rate, I'm encouraged that the recording gets your stamp of approval.

Tapkaara wrote:

just sounds honest...that just sounds right. I appreciate this very much.

Absolutely. It's intangible, this 'rightness', but absolutely essential. Without this elusive quality a performance will fall flat on its face.

American Record Guide, March/April 2009
Review by 'Vroon'
'This is a very boring orchestra, with no tonal allure. The conducting is dull as well. The two pieces I know best, Night Ride, and Belshazzar, are utterly without value here…'
Later, the reviewer seems to evaluate works by name or duration only ('“Romantic Waltz” – odd for something titled Death').

Well, that's a rap on the knuckles for most of us on the Forum, I trust that you will all join me in feeling suitably chastised for having liked the disc. I am just a little puzzled as to how something that we judged to be fundamentally rather good is actually 'utterly without value'. Clearly none of us on the Forum has any taste or critical acumen whatsoever.

What do you reckon?