Scottish Chamber Orchestra (SCO) - Sibelius Theatre Music Studio Master

The foundations of Sibelius’s reputation are his symphonies, tone poems and increasingly his songs but the music he wrote for the stage throughout his creative life includes some of his finest scores.

This CD presents his theatre music from 2 distinct periods – the 1900s (contemporary with his Violin Concerto, and the Second and Third Symphonies) and the 1920s, including some of the last works of his to survive.

At the time when Sibelius was emerging as a major creative figure, drama was pivotal to the development of cultural and social attitudes in Scandinavia. One need only mention 3 of his contemporaries: Ibsen, Strindberg and Bjornson. Sibelius was attracted to theatre as early as 1893, when he started work on an opera, The Building of the Boat. It was a visit to Bayreuth that caused him to abandon work on this, but the prelude survived as one of his most perfect pieces: The Swan of Tuonela. Its striking economy of expression and intensity are characteristics shared by much of his incidental music for the stage. In his stage music, Sibelius tends not so much to accompany dramatic action but to set scenes, create atmosphere or provide a prelude or intermezzo to the action for what were predominantly exotic or mystical dramas.

09 June 2008
Star Ledger of New Jersey
Bradley Bambarger
4 Stars

This 2003 title is a jewel in the Linn crown, one in a series of thoughtfully programmed Scottish Chamber Orchestra discs led by conductor-violinist Joseph Swenson. In other releases devoted to Mendelssohn, Brahms, Dvorak and Prokofiev, he solos in a major concerto, setting that alongside rarities, apt shorter pieces or a symphony. Here, he sticks to the baton, devoting an entire disc to the theater scores of Jean Sibelius -- rarely heard suites from "Pelleas and Melisande," "Belshazzar's Feast" and "The Tempest," plus the Finn's famous incidentals "Valse Triste" and "Andante Festivo." The music is gorgeous, from the aching "Death of Melisande" to a glittering "Oriental Procession." The playing balances rhythmic vitality with tonal mellowness, captured in the purest acoustics.


09 May 2005
The Daily Telegraph
Matthew Rye

Although he only completed one, short opera, Sibelius was no stranger to the theatre. This enterprising disc brings some of his better-known incidental scores together with music less often aired. Perhaps the most familiar is the suite from his music for Maeterlinck's Pelleas and Melisande, which opens the programme with playing that is both crisp and charged with the underlying drama: "The Death of Melisande" is particularly moving. The least known is probably Belshazzar's Feast, but Swensen and his orchestra make a good case for it, especially in the typically spacious musical world of the movement entitled "Solitude". There is also a compelling account of the Valse Triste, but Suite No 2 from the late score for The Tempest - some of the last music Sibelius wrote before his long retirement - lacks the atmosphere and characterisation that conductors such as Beecham and, more recently, Neeme Järvi have brought to it. Yet the Scottish Chamber Orchestra fields exceptional solo work, even if its strings occasionally sound thin in number (though probably comparable with what Sibelius would have been presented with in the theatre pit), and the recording from Edinburgh's Usher Hall is particularly vivid.


06 June 2005
International Record Review
Raymond S Tuttle

This CD could have been merely a compilation of Sibelius's incidental music were it not for Andante festivo, written not for a stage play but for a factory! Undeniably attractive, it doesn't seem particularly festive, and Joseph Swensen - who omits the optional timpani parta - does nothing to revise my opinion.

The four numbers from Belshazzar's Feast are infrequently recorded. Composers from cold countries bring out their brightest colours when painting Asia (think of Nielsen's Aladdin), and Sibelius's response to Hjalmar Procopé's forgotten drama is exotic, yet unmistakably Sibelian, particularly in the 'Nocturne', with its beautiful flute melody. Swensen is at least as good as Jukka-Pekka Saraste......

More familiar yet is The Tempest. There might have been room for the first suite too had Linn omitted the Andante Festivo or the over recorded Valse Triste. Here and in Pelleas, Swensen comes up against the estimable Sir Thomas Beecham, who nevertheless omits numbers in both. Beecham and the RPO sound richer and make a more imposing impression than Swensen and the Scottish players, although the current performance is appropriately moody.

With Pelleas, we reach well-charted territory. (The BBC's The Sky At Night never reached the United States, but those of us who have been reading booklet notes forever know that 'At the Castle Gate' is that programme's theme.) I like the menace that Swensen fiinds in this music, and also in The Tempest. 'At the Seashore', (the number Beecham omits) is quite threatening; Nature's violence anticipates the human violence lying ahead. Tuomas Ollila and Paavo Jarvi (especially) are plain beside Swensen.

Without overdoing it, the Scottish string players wash some of the colour from their tone by holding back on the vibrato. This was a good idea and it works well, so kudos to all for giving us a slightly different look at a very familiar piece. Roy McEwan's booklet notes generously put the individual numbers into the context of the larger drama. Linn's engineering is top notch.

01 - Pelleas and Melisande At the Castle Gate.flac
02 - Pelleas and Melisande Melisande.flac
03 - Pelleas and Melisande At the Seashore.flac
04 - Pelleas and Melisande A Spring in the Park.flac
05 - Pelleas and Melisande The Three Blind Sisters.flac
06 - Pelleas and Melisande Pastorale.flac
07 - Pelleas and Melisande Melisande at the Spinning-Wheel.flac
08 - Pelleas and Melisande Entr acte.flac
09 - The Death of Melisande.flac
10 - Kuolema Valse Triste.flac
11 - Belshazzars Feast Oriental Procession.flac
12 - Belshazzars Feast Solitude.flac
13 - Belshazzars Feast Nocturne.flac
14 - Belshazzars Feast Khadra s Dance.flac
15 - The Tempest Suite No 2 Chorus of the Winds.flac
16 - The Tempest Suite No 2 Intermezzo.flac
17 - The Tempest Suite No 2 Dance of the Nymphs.flac
18 - The Tempest Suite No 2 Prospero.flac
19 - The Tempest Suite No 2 Song 1.flac
20 - The Tempest Suite No 2 Song 2.flac
21 - The Tempest Suite No 2 Miranda.flac
22 - The Tempest Suite No 2 Naiads.flac
23 - The Tempest Suite No 2 Dance Episode.flac
24 - Andante Festivo.flac

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