Does anyone have some insight to the (somewhat) rare recordings of Sibelius from Russia?

I just ordered two CDs from RussianDVD.com, both conducted by Vladimir Fedoseyev on the Aquarius lable.

These are recordings that don't seem to be readily available from the usual online sources.

Any input would be great!

i will be interested to hear of your reaction to the recordings.

dj

Do these discs contain tone poems? If so I have them but I'm not going to spoil your fun by saying what I think of them. Will be interested to get your thoughts!

These are the recordings I ordered:

Symphony no. 2/Violin Concerto/Valse Triste
Tchaikovsky Symphony Orchestra conducted by Vladimir Fedoseyev

En Saga/Finlandia/Violin Concerto
Moscow Radio Symphony Orchestra conducted by Vladimir Feoseyev

I'm excited to hear these recordings as I've never really heard the Russian take on this music. I have the complete symphonies with Ashkenazy conducting, but it's with the very British Philharmonia.

I've already been able to hear clips of the En Saga recording I ordered and it sounds very wild! This should be fun...

I have heard some Russian Sibelius... Gennady Rozhdestvensky had a disc of Sibelius favorites (Finlandia, Valse Triste, Karelia, Pohjola's Daughter) that is also mentioned by myself in the "Sibelian Disasters" recordings thread... and that about sums up my opinion of what I've heard thus far of the Russian Sibelius.

Oh, and what about Oistrakh's Concerto recording? I seem to remember people not particularly liking it...

I'm open to possibilities, though; what I've read of the Japanese Sibelius in these discussions seems to be good - why not Russia?

I´m now listening symph 4. LP, Rozhdestvensky cond. Soviet U. Great Radio and TV symphony. No year marked, and the LP is made in Finland with cover in Finnish. Conductor is a Musician, but sometimes winds, and in the beginning basses (and bassoon) are out of tune....Brass playing in quite strange to me. But good orchestra. Timpani sounds like... from other room.

russian brass used to enjoy themselves with a rough manner of playing plus the horns use vibrato. it is different.

dj

At least 'Uncle Gennady' doesn't slam on the brakes at the end of the finale of Sym 4, but I can't see why he plays the last chords pianissimo.

Tapkaara - these aren't the recordings I have, so I'll be even more interested to hear what you think.
So now I can reveal that he tone poems set that I have is an almost unmitigated disaster, especially Luonnotar!

Andrew B wrote:

At least 'Uncle Gennady' doesn't slam on the brakes at the end of the finale of Sym 4, but I can't see why he plays the last chords pianissimo.

Especially considering that they are marked mf, probably the most unusal dynamic with which to end a symphony that one can possibly imagine.

I received my Russian CDs of music by Sibelius. I have not been able to digest all of it yet, but I listened to En Saga and Symphoony No. 2.

En Saga was not bad, if a little strange in the engineering dept. The strings are usually just as loud than the brass. Maybe it's the engineering, maybe it's the condutor, but my money's on the engineering. It does, however, give you a chace to really listen to the string details like never before. There are even some moments where the strings are louder than the brass! The bass drum sounds too distant at times. Tempi are very middle of the road, perhaps a little too slow at times. But the playing seems to be pretty solid.

The Second Symphony is from a live recording in 1988. The sound is not crystal clear but not horrible. It's a little on the "wooly" side. Also, dynamic ranges are rather extreme. The opening started so quietly I hard to turn up my stereo quite a bit. But when the brass came in...BAM!

The 2nd is interpreted well, but in a first listening I could not hear anything that distinguishes it from any other (better) recordings. Also, the performers are the "Tchaikovsky Symphony Orchestra." This esemble has a provincial sound and some of the playing was occaissionally shakey, but because it is a live recording, there's a good energy.

So far, I'm a little underwhelmed by what I've heard, but I still have a few more pieces to go. More later...

Tapkaara wrote:

Also, the performers are the "Tchaikovsky Symphony Orchestra." This esemble has a provincial sound and some of the playing was occaissionally shakey...

Eastern Europe has a penchant for throwing together temporary orchestras for recordings/concerts, all of which are strictly commercial.

The way it works is that some ambitious agency, often a one-man show, will find money from some sponsors, quickly paste together an orchestra made up of players from real orchestras in a big city, give it a flashy name and put together a recording in one session which is essentially a play-through with corrections. Same goes for concerts, in Prague, the NewWorld Symphony and parts of Ma Vlast are routinely played for tourists with only a half-hour sound-check beforehand.

Obviously the quality cannot compare to real artistic work by a full-time ensemble, but these orchestras are an integral part of the Eastern-European music-scene and are here to stay.

For the record, I stay away from them and always turn down concert offers, out of principle.

I recently downloaded a double CD of Sib's tone poems from either amazon.co.uk or play.com, called "Complete symphonic poems" played by a Russian orchestra conducted by Vassily Sinaisky - quite exciting performances and a decnt recording too.
Apparently several critics rate thes very highly indeed.

Sinaisky is doing Sibelius 1 in Manchester on 20th November with BBC P.O. hope I can be there. As this thread is devoted to a Russian view of Sibelius, you may be interested to know that I heard a BBC broadcast the other week of Russian conductor Valery Gergiev directing the Vienna Philharmonic in Sibelius 1. What a disappointment the first movement turned out! The opening clarinet was admirable, but then Gergiev delivered the most sluggish and lack-lustre account of the first movement that I have ever heard. The VPO is a magnificant instrument but under the Russians direction they sounded run of the mill. Things did begin to improve and the finale had great dramatic sweep. But alas, the damage was done!--kp