Sibelius Piano Works, Vol. 3: Florestan Suite; Six Impromptus, Op. 5; Ten Pieces, Op. 58; Petits Morceaux; Largo Joseph Tong (piano) Quartz QTZ2158 73:47 mins
Joseph Tong has headed to the Sibelius Museum in Turku, Finland for Volume 3 of Sibelius’s piano works, programmed and played with thought and care on a modern Steinway. Sibelius wrote his first pieces for piano aged 20, and Tong’s recital opens with a piece from just three years later. Schumann is in the wings of the rarely heard Florestan Suite, its four movements inspired by the fairy-tale character Florestan and his encounter with water nymphs. It’s followed by a Largo in A major, eloquently played. The Six Impromptusof 1893 find Sibelius continuing to explore Romantic piano genres, in melancholic minor keys that move us from sombre grandeur (No. 1) to silvery dance (No. 2), emphatic martial rhythms (No. 3) to a sorrowful bittersweetness (No. 4). The stand-out is the Fifth Impromptu, in which Liszt meets Sibelius, with rippling passagework and a yearning melody.
The Petits Morceaux (written, the composer told his children, ‘so that you will have bread and butter’) are charmingly done, but the Ten Pieces, Op. 58 (1909) offer greater musical rewards. Tong here is beautifully sensitive to character and mood, particularly in the deliciously elusive opening ‘Rêverie’ and concluding ‘Summer Song’, though sometimes a more varied colour palette would be welcome.
Rebecca Franks
