A warm welcome to my friend and colleague Bruce Dunn, who has just joined us! The Sibelius Forum is about to become a lot more aromatic...

... think "Captain Black" ...

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Well, it's taken me a while to sign up here (thanks for the encouragement, Tapkaara and Kurkikohtaus), but I got here eventually.

I 'discovered' Sibelius when I was about sixteen, along with Elgar and Vaughan Williams. I loved what I thought of as his 'northern-ness', and I loved the 'Big Tune' symphonies - 1, 2, 3 and 5. I never managed to click with 4, 6 and 7. So I played those symphonies almost to destruction, but then found Wagner, and somehow Wagner seemed to elbow Sibelius aside (I'm not really sure why). So that while Elgar has remained a lifetime companion as the decades slipped by, Sibelius's music has for a long time been more of a fond memory than an active force. When eventually I threw away my LPs, I didn't bother to replace my Sibelius records by CDs for quite a while - but eventually I bought the Sakari/Iceland Naxos White Box, and that was that for the next few years.

But it's hard to ignore Tapkaara's enthusiasm, and through his posts on the TalkClassical forum, I started to wonder if maybe I was missing something. So I asked his advice and then proceeded to ignore it (!!) by buying the Colin Davis RCA LSO symphony set, which was disastrous. I have never heard Sibelius made to seem so dull. So then I asked Tapkaara's advice again, and this time took it - by buying the BIS 'Essential Sibelius' box. The samples I've heard suggest that Vanska's interpretations of the symphonies are going to be very much my kind of Sibelius, that is, plenty of snow, ice, cold air, and wind in the trees, with a sense of something vast, ancient and mysterious just out of reach. As it happens, the BIS box has arrived this very morning.

So I'm about to embark on another Sibelius odyssey, though it seems a strange thing to be doing in the middle of the great explosion of Baroque discovery that has engulfed me during the last year or so; and I expect my progress will be very slow. And I'm not at all sure whether I can contribute anything meaningful to a specialist Sibelius forum. But for good or ill I'm here, lurking, now.

hi, elgarian!

dj

Elgarian wrote:

Well, it's taken me a while to sign up here (thanks for the encouragement, Tapkaara and Kurkikohtaus), but I got here eventually. I 'discovered' Sibelius when I was about sixteen, along with Elgar and Vaughan Williams. I loved what I thought of as his 'northern-ness', and I loved the 'Big Tune' symphonies - 1, 2, 3 and 5. I never managed to click with 4, 6 and 7. So I played those symphonies almost to destruction, but then found Wagner, and somehow Wagner seemed to elbow Sibelius aside (I'm not really sure why). So that while Elgar has remained a lifetime companion as the decades slipped by, Sibelius's music has for a long time been more of a fond memory than an active force. When eventually I threw away my LPs, I didn't bother to replace my Sibelius records by CDs for quite a while - but eventually I bought the Sakari/Iceland Naxos White Box, and that was that for the next few years. But it's hard to ignore Tapkaara's enthusiasm, and through his posts on the TalkClassical forum, I started to wonder if maybe I was missing something. So I asked his advice and then proceeded to ignore it (!!) by buying the Colin Davis RCA LSO symphony set, which was disastrous. I have never heard Sibelius made to seem so dull. So then I asked Tapkaara's advice again, and this time took it - by buying the BIS 'Essential Sibelius' box. The samples I've heard suggest that Vanska's interpretations of the symphonies are going to be very much my kind of Sibelius, that is, plenty of snow, ice, cold air, and wind in the trees, with a sense of something vast, ancient and mysterious just out of reach. As it happens, the BIS box has arrived this very morning. So I'm about to embark on another Sibelius odyssey, though it seems a strange thing to be doing in the middle of the great explosion of Baroque discovery that has engulfed me during the last year or so; and I expect my progress will be very slow. And I'm not at all sure whether I can contribute anything meaningful to a specialist Sibelius forum. But for good or ill I'm here, lurking, now.

A wonderful intro!

I know you've been on a musical journey lately that is quite in the opposite direction of Sibelius (Baroque music), but I hope this slight detour you've decided to take will be a worthwhile one for you.

Sibelius is truly a composer whose music you can really "explore." Yes, you can sample all of his various works, but they are so multi-layered and unique that yo really hear something different with each listen. His is not a shallow musical world; there is much murky depth in Sibelius, and thus those with a sense for musical adventure will not be dissapointed by exploring him.

Please participate as often as you see fit, Elgarian. I casn assure you we want to hear more from you!!!

Hi Elgarian, and a warm welcome from me. As Elgar is one of my other favourite composers I feel sure that we have much in common. Although Sibelius is the central theme of the forum, our topics can take us to some unlikly places. As you rediscover the wonderful music of J.S I hope that you will share your thought with us all.--kp

Many thanks for these warm welcomes. My intention is to document my explorations of the BIS 'Essential Sibelius' box here; not sure quite how best to go about doing it - maybe I'll start a new 'BIS Box' thread for the purpose, in the 'Recordings' section; there doesn't seem to be one already.

Hello!

My name is David Revilla Velasco, and I'm from Spain. I live in Valladolid (north-center of Spain).

Sorry by my english, I can read it quite well, but speaking or writing is more difficult to me.

I'm in love with Sibelius music. You have here the proofs about my passion: there are about 250 CDs in my collection, including all the published Bis Sibelius Edition (some CDs are the same because there are the original Bis recordings). In the last years also I bought the main books about Sibelius: Andrew Barnett, Tawaststjerna, Layton, Ekman...

I was in Finland for the 2007 Lahti Festival, the Osmo Vänskä's last one, ¡wonderful! The music, the land, the Sibelius memories... Ah, ¡the great book by Barnett was introduced there! I'll go back soon, I hope.

My Sibelius discovered happened at 15 years. I have heard Finlandia and the Valse Triste, but they didnt seem to me special music at the moment. But I meet the Violin Concerto and I began to search more and more Sibelius music. The Concerto with Ferras and Karajan was the first recording tha I bought, with Finlandia and Tapiola. After this, the 5th and 7th symphonies by Bernstein. More and more. In that time, I was a wagnerian (Wagner seems to me the best musician and artist yet), but nowdays I'm more sibelian.

Spain isn't a sibelian land, becaused the quite different culture and spanish mood, but also because the Adorno's words. We didn't have a "Sibelius revision". In order to get more sibelian information and more Sibelius fans, I write since nine months a blog about Sibelius music in spanish. There are information about Sibelius life, works analisis, discography, Finland history and culture, etc. There are a lot of people interesed, they say me that really there isn't information in the spanish language. Also some deep sibelian people from Argentina, Chile, México, etc. read my blog. There is a little interest more than Spain about Sibelius in these lands, but the information lacks too. The website is on my firm. I'll link the forum in my page too.

It's amazing for me this Sibelius forum, so many sibelian together! Even Andrew Barnett! A lot of wisdom! I'll try to write in the forum (sorry by bad english again), but over all I'll read you.

Thank you for this forum!

Hi David

and a very warm welcome to the Forum. Let's hope that all your good work in keeping Spanish people informed about Sibelius will have positive results.

Hi David and a warm welcome to the forum from me. I read your post with great interest and I am certainly looking forward to having a Spanish viewpoint on Sibelius. You know, Sibelius wrote several pieces that reveal a distinctly Spanish atmosphere. I too was just 15 when I discovered this wonderful music. Look forward to your further thoughts on the master.--kp

Thanks!

Andrew B, it was a pity, I had no chance for my/your "Sibelius" to be autographed for you in Lahti 2007! Uuuups, I didn't know your image untill the conference. Only I got a Vänskä's firm on his self Kullervo's recording booklet, ha, ha! The next time, I hope.

I have a lot of questions for you, it's great to find you in this forum.

Kullervopete, that's true, I had observed a few examples of a "spanish" Sibelius. I think that really they don't sound spanish very much, but they sound fake or false spanish folk music neither (fake spanish folk music is the Chopin's bolero or Tchaikovsky's Spanish Dance from Swan Lake, but no bad music, of course).

The bolero in Scaramouche is good, but the whole work is a bit boring I think (Sibelius self was agree). Festivo (a bolero too) from Scènes Historiques opus 25 is wonderful anyway. And I like also the miniature "Spaguolo" for piano JS.181, the more "spanish" of the three pieces (jota or fandango rythms). In this moment I don't rebember other examples. I'll write about this in my blog in the future.

Thank you again!

Muy bien! Bienvenido!!

Welcome to the forum David!

I live in San Diego, California, which of course was founded by the Spanish. We have a lot of Spanish architecture in this city.

How wonderful to see a new member with such enthusiasm for Sibelius. And your English is fine, by the way.

Gracias, Tapkaara.

Nice to me to be here.