The Very Best of Sibelius

Compiling a best-of release for Jean Sibelius is difficult, perhaps even more difficult than for other composers of his era. This is because Sibelius had several distinct styles, and a largely different audience to go with each one. Those who immerse themselves in the intense gloom of the Symphony No. 4 have little use for the triumphant strains of Finlandia or the finale of the Symphony No. 2 that came close, the local composers having nothing on hand that would quite fill the bill, to becoming an anthem for World War II-era Britain. And Sibelius as a miniaturist had an entirely different outlook from Sibelius as a symphonist. For some listeners he is a lyrical Scandinavian melodist in the mold of Grieg. There are still other Sibeliuses; in his discovery of Finnish epic literature he drew on Wagner's ways of dealing with similar material. This two-disc set from Naxos does a fine job under the circumstances, with good introductions to all the facets of the composer's style. The best-of format works worst in the cases of symphonists whose forms are organic, and one misses the bleak Symphony No. 4 and the beautifully constructed Symphony No. 7. Nevertheless, the famous Sibelius symphonic excerpts are all here, and restricting the selection to those gives the compilers a chance to get into more unusual orchestral material: the Suite No. 2 from the Incidental Music for Shakespeare's "The Tempest," Op. 109; the early En Saga, Op. 9; and some big hits: Finlandia, the Valse Triste, and the Karelia Suite. There are short solo piano pieces, two songs, not only the Violin Concerto, Op. 47, but also the lesser-known Romance, Op. 42. The selections, drawn from the vast Naxos catalog of performances by Scandinavian and Eastern European groups, are nowhere less than workmanlike, and the program has the effect of constantly revealing something new but still holding together -- exactly what is desirable in a release of this kind, and exactly what is hard to pull off with Sibelius. ~ James Manheim, All Music Guide