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In Reply to: RE: BIS Sibelius #7 Vanska/Minnesota: Fabulous recording, unfussy interpretation, recommended! posted by jdaniel@jps.net on September 13, 2016 at 08:23:27
I listened to your rec Mravinsky and Leningrad again today and still like it, plus the album cover is as Russian as Blinis.
That Trombone, though, he's just not that good. I'm better and I never made a dime playing it. Oh wait, I was in a high school Combo-Orks band that played school dances and Bar Mitzvahs. 20 bucks a night I recall.
Whoa!!! That's $158 bucks today!!!
Anyone else play Sentimental, Satin Doll and 5 O'Clock Jump when you were kids?
Follow Ups:
The critical acclaim for the Mravinsky 7th is over the top, but I burst out laughing when the trombonist came in.
. . . you might understand the critical acclaim. The Mravinsky Sibelius Seventh is one of the greatest recorded performances of anything - a one of a kind performance, with a level of drama which other conductors seem almost afraid to attempt. As I said before, that doesn't mean that other interpretive approaches to this symphony (such as Vanska's!) aren't valid. But if one is on board with a high-octane, high-intensity presentation of this music, one could not find greater commitment than what's heard from Mravinsky and his orchestra. But don't take my word for it - here's an Amazon reviewer's post:. . . bought it mainly for the Sibelius 7th, based on reviewers in many venues. The performance is just...otherworldly. Mravinsky handles a number of details differently than what you'd hear in many other performances of this symphony, and it adds up to an exciting, and spiritual whole. It starts off almost immediately, with the ascending string entry taken at a much faster clip than most other recordings...and you know what? it works (as do many of the other smaller bits of detail.) I'd also mention the horns sound much earthier--but also much more soulful--than other western recordings.
I suspect, though, that any remastering attempt of a mid-60's live radio recording from Russia can only do so much. Has anyone heard it?
Russell
It's the last tracks on this set, streaming it on QOBUZ and it could use some 're-mastering'.
I have no idea what they did (if anything) as far as remastering goes, but the sound quality is very good for its time IMHO, especially considering that the performance was recorded "live" in concert.
I know Melodiya has been reissuing a lot of older performances lately, with variable results. I haven't heard the set you show in your post.
Not easy to compare dynamics and balance on Youtube but I cued up the first section of 3 performances, Vanska, Mravinsky and the King Of Shmaltz, Bernstein.Vanska is all about the crescendo building to the Trombone solo, Mravinsky has his strings forcefully digging it out at a much faster tempo which serves to emphasize the dynamics but leaving less room for the drama of the crescendo than Vanska. Bernstein apparently believes Norse music must be glacial and his idea of the all important crescendo is to go from mf to f .
In all three, the Trombone is played in the Germanic style, more legato than British or American orchestras which somewhat obscures the note changes. Mravinskys Russian also has the typical added vibrato which further muddies things to my ear with my Western training.
Bernstein and the VPO let's forget about.
For the all important opening and lead in to the Trombone solo: I really like the opening strings for pace and dynamics of the Mravinsky and kind of in awe at how he still gets a dramatic full orchestra crescendo from there. Vanska has the lightest and loveliest string tone and takes his time building the dynamic and tonal blocks that create the best crescendo by far.
Both are worthy performances and I have no favorite except the Swedish Trombonist far better presents his part as the exclamation point needed for the 5 minute sentence leading up to it.
Okay, so now I ask, what makes this work a symphony and not a tone poem?
Edits: 09/15/16
Well, as Schumann supposedly said when asked about the difference between a sonata and a fantasy, "What's in a name?"!
In the case of the Sibelius Seventh, I've read a number of booklet notes in which the writers try to discern movements within the evolving continuous development of the music. OTOH, I've read other writers who claim that the symphonic poem, "Tapiola", is itself really a symphony (in the same manner as the Seventh, I suppose). I think Sibelius wrote these works at a time when the distinctions between symphony and symphonic poem had already broken down and were not at all clear.
l
. . . your Ansermet Petrouchka! ;-)
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