Energized by the sun and the vitality of the Italian Riviera town Rapallo, with Don Juan and Dante fluttering in his head, Sibelius wrote the first nascent ideas for his Second Symphony, a great leap forward in his unceasing quest to develop and refine his own personal style. In structural terms, the great Finnish composer struck out for terra incognita in this work, though the textures and motifs of this captivating score still owe much to Beethoven, Brahms, and even Tchaikovsky.
A moment to listen for in… Sibelius’s Second Symphony: A dark woodwind section floats calmly atop a cello pizzicato (12:25), until the strings play a haunting song (12:51) that mounts in intensity and, rather than lead to an expected orchestral climax, allows the flute section to join in a colourful three-layered section (13:35)—a typical feature in Sibelius’s orchestral writing.
About this cycle: It would be difficult to speak about the life and work of Finnish conductor Paavo Berglund without mentioning the name of his illustrious compatriot, composer Jean Sibelius—but the reverse is also true, as Berglund spent a lifetime exploring the profound depths of Sibelius’s music and bringing it to an ever wider public. After three recordings of the complete Sibelius symphonies on CD, Berglund returned to these titanic works in 1998, aged nearly 70, with a level of insight—shaped over the course of decades—that perhaps no other conductor has ever achieved.
His unique perspective, with a keen ear for subtle details and a remarkable clarity of sound, found a perfect outlet in the impeccable Chamber Orchestra of Europe. The ensemble, equipped here with a smaller string section than you’ll hear in most Sibelius cycles, brings out previously unheard nuances in these seven masterpiece of late Romanticism. These iconic readings, brimming with emotion and intensity, are now available on video and streaming 24/7 on medici.tv.
