Sibelius Symphonies Nos 3 & 4 Orchestre Métropolitain de Montréal/Yannick Nézet-Séguin ATMA Classique ACD 22454 68:41 mins
No question, these are beautiful performances, beautifully recorded. Over and again, Yannick Nézet-Ségun opens up Sibelius’s multi-layered textures in fresh and illuminating ways, revealing strands and details that can disappear in a more generalised ‘sound’. But there there’s a nagging question, one which grew with time: is this the right kind of beautiful?
It’s actually quite refreshing to get away from conventional image of the austere Titan of the Northlands, and to be reminded how Romantically nuanced the expression can be, and also what a wonderful melodist Sibelius was. But the elemental drama, the feeling that forces are at work deep below the surface, conveyed so thrillingly by Davis, Vänskä, Karajan and others – it just isn’t there. The finale of the Third certainly gets steadily louder, but I miss the feeling of riding a rising tidal wave. In the Fourth, the unsettling mood-swings are strangely levelled up (or down), which may make the music more palatable to some, but it doesn’t offer much to illuminate Sibelius’s description of this as his ‘psychological symphony’.
There’s some strange accentuation, too – timpani at the climax of the Third’s second movement, strings at the end of the Fourth’s Largo. As for the ending of the Fourth, a protracted slowing down after the climax can be made to work (though it’s not indicated in the score), but here it feels a bit like a protracted operatic death scene. It’s a long way from the stoicism or grim resignation conveyed in so many of the finest performances.
Stephen Johnson
