Spring Song/Four Legends Of Ka [Original recording remastered]

If you were thinking of adding Sibelius's 'Lemminkainen Legends' to your collection and were scanning the many versions currently available then you might understandably pass by a version by a British provincial orchestra under a conductor of no special reputation. This would be a great pity because this is (to my ears at least) the best version of them all. I've heard all the other available offerings and time and again have been frustrated and disappointed by indifferent performances.
Most suffer from a certain 'political correctness', trying to prettify and smooth out Sibelius's score to the point of total blandness, sounding too refined and more 'Finnoise' than Finnish, if you catch my drift. Groves's approach is bold and direct, pointing up the edgy, rustic elements which are essential to bring this ancient Finnish saga to life. Although a somewhat literal presentation of the 'once upon a time' introduction of the first section 'Lemminkainen and the Maidens of the Island' had me wondering if this was going to be a lacklustre effort, Groves and his orchestra give the rest of the movement exciting propulsive energy and the great Tristan and Isolde - like climax a grinding tension that is almost unbearable, and now, even after a week or so of last hearing it, I can't get it out of my ears! 'The Swan of Tuonela' is given I think the most appropriate interpretation I've ever heard; this is a bird with a sinister streak and Groves certainly portrays it this way. Groves completely avoids the totally misplaced usual beautification treatment and never forgets that this swan swims in Hades, not Hyde Park.
The weird 'hollow' string effects towards the latter pages of 'Lemminkainen in Tuonela' are really effective and spine-chilling and the climactic eruptions throughout are magnificently done. 'Lemminkainen's Return' is a little on the slow side and is the least satisfactory of Groves' readings here, but at least iit doesn't drag in the way that it's 7 minute timing seems to suggest and doesn't disappoint in the way that many (faster, but soggier) interpretations do. The recording (mid-1970s) quality is a bit on the cloudy side but it isn't distracting in the way that many modern crystal-clear but clinical digital recordings can be (Segerstam's otherwise very good version being a good example). The other items on these two well-filled discs are mostly some of Sibelius's less inspired compositions (some of it decidedly tacky) but listen to 'In memoriam'; I've never known it sound like something out of Mahler's 'Wunderhorn' as it does here. 'Spring Song' is given a somewhat heavy-handed treatment which doesn't really suit and Berglund, for example, on his superb Bournemouth SO collection does it far better. It's for Lemminkainen though that most people will want this, and I don't think they'll be disappointed.

Ensign is dead right to panegyrise this collection. Blindfolded, one would be hard-pressed to ascribe it to Sir Charles Groves and the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic: what a stunning achievement. There is no need to comment further on the Lemminkainen Legends.

The incidental music to the Tempest is one of the last works that Sibelius wrote before he lapsed into his thirty year silence. There is nothing aleatory about this composition: the parallels between the Finnish composer and Prospero himself are legion.

graves at my command
Have waked their sleepers, oped, and let 'em forth
By my so potent art. But this rough magic
I here abjure, and, when I have required
Some heavenly music, which even now I do,
To work mine end upon their senses that
This airy charm is for, I'll break my staff,
Bury it certain fathoms in the earth,
And deeper than did ever plummet sound
I'll drown my book

It would be facile to say that Sibelius put down the pen and took up the bottle with gusto. Such a thesis ignores the strain of creativity (when Clara Schumann went into labor for the first time, her husband did likewise - spurning sleep for four days and nights to give birth to the Spring Symphony - who was more knackered by the end of the week?). Others have suggested that Sibelius was fearful that modernity had rendered his craft 'a hymn to the forces of yesterday'. Whatever the answer be, the renunciation to come imparts great interest to Opus 109.

Sibelius was clearly at the height of his powers when he penned this masterpiece. It rightly smells of grease-paint. Each scene is delicately constructed and faithful to the play. Just listen to the opening storm of the Prelude, the rusticity of Caliban's Song or the Chorus of the Winds. It ends with Dance Episode, as Prospero repudiates his wizardry to crave pardon of the audience.

Groves and the Liverpudlians are superb in this suite (twenty pieces from the entire work); the playing is coloured with a requisite 'will o the wisp' tincture.

This collection ends with the Andante Festivo for Strings. If the Heavenly Array had played this work to the Shepherds, the latter would have found their way to the Stable just as surely as if they had been issued with satellite-navigation.

Sursum corda - lift up your hearts!

This recording of the four Legends is excellently recorded and very decently played. Although the first poem is taken at a measured pace it is stuffed with atmosphere and colour. All of the other movements are pleasing, too, though Lemminkainen's return needs more energy.

The Tempest suites are very alert to the otherwordly nature of the music, and the remaining, shorter works are all well done.

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