Sibelius: Orchestral Works (Remastered 2021)

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A modest event in the world of reissues. As part of their vast and fascinating edition dedicated to Hans Rosbaud (1895-1962), the SWR radio team unveil completely new interpretations of two symphonies by Jean Sibelius (2nd, 4th), a composer that the Austrian conductor, who in the 1950s was an ardent defender of even the most brutal modernism at the Donaueschingen Festival and who was one of Pierre Boulez's mentors, has never shied away from conducting.

In 1955 Deutsche Grammophon embarked on a series of recordings to celebrate the Finnish composer's ninetieth birthday, releasing an entire LP of Sibelius' works with Hans Rosbaud conducting the Berliner Philharmoniker. Leading it, a strange Tapiola, modern, princely and surprising, not to be missed.

In Baden-Baden, Hans Rosbaud was also celebrating the composer with his Sudwestfunkorchester, and on two evenings, the 6th and 7th of December 1955, on the eve of Sibelius' birthday (8th December), he conducted the great Finnish bass Kim Borg in three songs, and the Fifth Symphony. In January of the same year, on the 7th January 1955, he had taken the defence of the Second Symphony. In January 1961, he returned to Sibelius with the extraordinary Fourth. Hans Rosbaud is particularly sensitive to the architecture of the works, always choosing a tempo that is appropriate and fluid. In this respect, the Second Symphony may surprise you by the very moderate tempo of its opening movement, and yet what a beautiful momentum towards the final coda. The Fourth offered here by the SWR is unforgettable, as Rosbaud unveils such extraordinary intervals. The tempo is restrained, and the atmosphere perfectly desolate without being demonstrative until it becomes quite "soaring" in Il tempo largo, before it turns into the truly cataclysmic finale (Allegro). With great aptness and naturalness, Rosbaud lets us hear all the rough timbre combinations (woodwinds and brass), a rare quality indeed. This 4th will fascinate those who remember Herbert von Karajan (1965) conducting this work, as you will probably hear an affinity in the musical visions.

Some days before the Parisian audiences welcomed the great Finnish conductor Tauno Hannikainen for a concert at the head of the R.T.F. Orchestra, Hans Rosbaud conducted the Fifth at Baden-Baden. Here again, the Austrian conductor distinguished himself by his attention to orchestral detail—the string phrasing in the Allegro molto—and by his continuous search for Sibelius' tonal singularity, unparalleled in the landscape of European musical modernism. © Pierre-Yves Lascar/Qobuz