Déjà Review: this review was first published in July 2006 and the recording is still available.

Jean Sibelius (1865-1957)
Luonnotar and Orchestral Songs
Soile Isokoski (soprano)
Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra/Leif Segerstam
rec. 2005, Finlandia Hall, Helsinki
Ondine ODE1080-5 SACD [62]

I wish I had a better handle on the number of Sibelius songs with orchestra. I presume the Söderström/Krause set on Decca (ADD 476 17259, 1985) is complete but that’s a collection of songs with piano. How many of these exist with orchestra and how many of those orchestrations are Sibelius originals? Does anyone have a list?

There are nineteen songs here, eighteen if we discount Luonnotar which is a remarkable hybrid of tone poem, fabulous tessitura and epic scena. Seven of the nineteen are arranged by the composer’s son-in-law, the conductor Jussi Jalas (1908-1985). There’s one each by Nils-Eric Fougstedt (1910-1961, conductor and composer), one by master-composer Ernest Pingoud (1887-1942) and another by Ivar Hellman (1891-1994). The remaining nine are presumably Sibelius originals.

Kaiutar (Echo-Nymph) has a fast-lapping soft ostinato over which the vocal line floats. Woodwind solos wind in the gentlest descant of the type we know from The Wood Nymph and the incidental music for The Tempest. There are some tremulous dramatic touches too, as at 1:46, which link with Luonnotar.

Luonnotar is superbly done and what an otherworldly piece this is – minimalistic, understated, dramatic, terse in the manner of the Fourth Symphony and The Bard, as mysterious and gnomic as Martinu’s Epic of Gilgamesh (another creation epic) yet with an operatic mastery. This scena-tone poem is sui generis and with its tense impulse, exciting propulsion, expansive theme and cruel tessitura it has had few failures among recordings. Among the best are this one as well as the 1970s effort by the even more damsel-toned Taru Valjakka for Berglund. Mari-Anne Haggänder is also superb on Bis CD270 from the late 1980s. That Bis disc also includes a less generous collection of the songs with orchestra but it is excellent as also is the Grieg-Sibelius blend on Warner 8573 80243-2 sung by Karita Mattila with the CBSO and Sakari Oramo.

Many of the orchestrations date from years after the particular song was first written for voice and piano; many the product of the so-called ‘silence from Jarvenpaa’ from circa 1921 until Sibelius’s death in 1958. They were variously inspired by the artistry of Aino Ackté and Aulikki Rautawaara in the 1930s. Are there sufficient 78s of these and other singers’ Sibelius to make a useful collection of historical Sibelius song recordings with orchestra? This would be a nice project for Mark Obert-Thorn.

Interestingly only five of the nineteen including Luonnotar are settings in Finnish of Finnish poems. The other four are Kaiutar; Illalle; Lastu lainehilla, and Souda souda sinisorsa. The rest are settings in Swedish with the six of these to poems by J.L. Runeberg. The sung texts are conveniently printed side by side with English translation in the booklet.

Ondine secure a toweringly big sound necessary to these songs which encompass everything from confiding intimacy to operatic climaxes – sometimes in the same song.

I still have hopes for a complete edition of Sibelius’s orchestral songs. Is anyone out there listening?

I reviewed this disc on a standard CD player. It is however a dual format disc with both full SACD and standard CD capability.

This is a glorious disc that will delight lovers of Scandinavian song as well as Sibelians everywhere.

Rob Barnett

Contents
Kaiutar, Op. 72/4 (Larin-Kyösti) (arr. Jussi Jalas) [
Luonnotar, Op. 70 (Kalevala)
Men min fågel märks dock icke, Op. 36/2 (J.L. Runeberg) (arr. Ernest Pingoud)
Säv, säv susa, Op. 36/4 (arr. Ivar Hellman) (G. Fröding)
Demanten på marssnön, Op. 36/6 (J.J. Wecksell)
Våren flyktar hastigt, Op. 13/4 (J.L. Runeberg)
Under strandens granar, Op. 13/1 (J.L. Runeberg) (arr. Jussi Jalas)
Den första kyssen, Op. 37/1 (J.L. Runeberg) (arr. Nils-Eric Fougstedt)
Soluppgång, Op. 37/3 (T. Hedberg)
Var det en dröm?, Op. 37/4 (J.J. Wecksell) (arr. Jussi Jalas)
Höstkväll, Op. 38/1 (V. Rydberg)
På verandan vid havet, Op. 38/2 (V. Rydberg)
Arioso, Op. 3 (J.L. Runeberg)
Illalle, Op. 17/6 (A.V. Forsman-Koskimies) (arr. Jussi Jalas)
Lastu lainehilla, Op. 17/7 (Ilmari Kianto) (arr. Jussi Jalas)
Souda, souda, sinisorsa (A.V. Forsman-Koskimies) (arr. Jussi Jalas)
S’en har jag ej frågat mera, Op. 17/1 (J.L. Runeberg)
En slända, Op. 17/5 (O. Levertin) (arr. Jussi Jalas)
Hertig Magnus, Op. 57/6 (E. Josephson)