Composer: Jean Sibelius
Performer: Lise Davidsen
Orchestra: Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra
Conductor: Edward Gardner
Format: FLAC (tracks)
Label: Chandos
Release: 2021
Size: 1.19 GB
Recovery: +3%
Scan: yes
01. Luonnotar, Op. 70 (Text: Kalevala)
02. Tapiola, Op. 112
Pelléas and Mélisande Suite, Op. 46
03. I. At the Castle Gate
04. II. Mélisande
05. III. At the Seashore
06. IV. By a Spring in the Park
07. V. The Three Blind Sisters (Version for Soprano & Orchestra) [Sung in Swedish]
08. VI. Pastorale
09. VII. Mélisande at the Spinning Wheel
10. VIII. Entr’acte
11. IX. The Death of Mélisande
Rakastava, Op. 14
12. I. The Lover
13. II. The Path of His Beloved
14. III. Good Evening! Farewell!
15. Spring Song, Op. 16
Following their acclaimed recordings of Schoenberg with Sara Jakubiak and Britten’s Peter Grimes with Stuart Skelton, Edward Gardner and the Bergen Philharmonic turn their attention to the music of Sibelius. Written in 1913 for the diva Aino Ackté, the tone poem Luonnotar draws on text from the Finnish national epic poem, the Kalevala. Its virtuosic demands are ably met here by award-wining soprano Lise Davidsen, who also feature in the Suite from Pelléas and Mélisande, music re-worked by Sibelius from his incidental music written for the first performances of Maeterlinck’s play in Helsinki, in 1905, in Swedish. The tone poem Tapiola, from 1926, is Sibelius’ last great masterpiece and evokes the forests of his native Finland. The programme is completed by a pair of much earlier works, Rakastava and Vårsång (Spring Song).