by Martin Bookspan
SIBELIUS' SYMPHONIES
THE BASIC REPERTOIRE has been a monthly feature in these pages since November 1958. From the beginning it has been among the most popular features in the magazine; indeed, thousands of readers write in each year for a copy of the latest annual "Updatings" booklet, a fact that inspired the publication of my book, 101 Masterpieces of Music and Their Composers (Doubleday, 1968, hardcover; Dolphin Books, 1973, paperback): its two editions are the direct result of the accumulated research that has gone into the preparation of these columns. I am particularly pleased that the paperback edition is in use as a classroom text in many college and university music courses.
Regular readers know that the habit of the column these past seventeen years has been to deal with a different work each month, to place it in the perspective of the output of its creator and in the broader perspective of the overall history of music, and then to discuss my favorites among the many different avail able recordings of each piece. More than 180 works have been treated thus far, and I have rejoiced in the many letters I have received from readers over the years. Their gratifying response indicates the usefulness of the monthly column, the annual "Updatings," and 101 Masterpieces to novice and experienced collector alike as source material and convenient references in choosing recordings for any library of symphonic music.
But a feeling that it is time to change the format has been the subject of considerable discussion in recent months between the editors of STEREO REVIEW and me, and we have come up with the idea of treating whole genres of a composer's output in each monthly column. This month, for example. I'll ad dress myself to the Sibelius symphonies, next month it may be the Brahms piano trios, the month after ... who knows? This is all very much in the nature of an experiment, and your reactions, pro and con, will be eagerly awaited by all of us.
IN my opinion, Jean Sibelius' orchestral writing is one of the glories of musical creativity. True, not everything he composed is on the level of the Fourth and Seventh Symphonies and Tapiola. True, he operated within fairly narrow confines-only one published chamber-music work (the D Minor String Quartet titled Voces Intimae), one concerto, and one opera, unpublished at that (The Maid in the Tower). And, though there is a considerable body of solo piano music, it rarely rises above the level of routine competence. But the symphonies and tone poems are some thing else again, powerful and dramatic works that aim at and usually accomplish a Big Statement, music that reaches out and seizes the receptive listener and transports him to a higher level of consciousness. Further, in his orchestral music Sibelius speaks in a voice uniquely and distinctively his own. His tonal palette of whirring strings, twittering winds, and snarling brass is instantly and unmistakably identifiable. And his artistic concerns were the cosmic ones that have informed the creation of great art over the millennia: enrichment, exaltation, ennoblement. Those may seem archaic values to some, but there is a spirituality in their pursuit that can move mountains-and hearts. I am convinced that the Sibelius symphonies and tone poems have this power.
The First, Second, and Fifth of Sibelius' symphonies are epic works, while the Fourth and Seventh have a quality of coiled-spring tension that ultimately resolves into an other worldly serenity. The Third and Sixth are al together gentler. But in them all one is constantly in touch with a probing, passionate mind.
Last month in this space I dealt with the various available recordings of what is undoubtedly Sibelius' best-known and most frequently performed work, the tone poem Finlandia. With his symphonies, the best place to begin is probably the Second, a big, Romantic vehicle for a virtuoso conductor and orchestra. During the quarter-century (1924-1949) that he was conductor of the Boston Sym phony Orchestra, Serge Koussevitzky was Sibelius' principal prophet in this country. He recorded the Second Symphony twice in Boston, first in 1935 and then again in December 1950, just six months before he died. The later recording (RCA Victrola VIC 1510, mono only), though suffering from cramped reproduction, summons up enough of the Koussevitzky magic with this music to make it an in dispensable item in any library.
Among the currently available stereo recordings of the Second Symphony, my favorite is George Szell's with the Concertgebouw Orchestra (Philips 835306). It is brilliantly played and recorded, and the late Cleveland maestro delivers one of his most heartfelt and impassioned performances.
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