Special offer. Jukka-Pekka Saraste conducts Sibelius & Lutosławski
Recorded live at Southbank Centre’s Royal Festival Hall, London, on 20 February 2008 (Lutosławski) and 15 October 2008 (Sibelius)
London Philharmonic Orchestra, Jukka-Pekka Saraste
Both Sibelius works come across very strongly here...Saraste sees these works whole. Always the right thing seems to happen at the right time. The sense of growth from a simple but potent musical...
Special offer. Jukka-Pekka Saraste conducts Sibelius & Lutosławski
Recorded live at Southbank Centre’s Royal Festival Hall, London, on 20 February 2008 (Lutosławski) and 15 October 2008 (Sibelius)
London Philharmonic Orchestra, Jukka-Pekka Saraste
Purchase product
Both Sibelius works come across very strongly here...Saraste sees these works whole. Always the right thing seems to happen at the right time. The sense of growth from a simple but potent musical...
About
At first glance, Sibelius and Lutosławski may seem odd bedfellows on disc, but not in this instance. This disc couples the two works for which these composers are probably best remembered. Sibelius’ Symphony No.5 and Lutosławski’s Concerto for Orchestra.
Interestingly, Lutosławski, in admiration of Sibelius, travelled to Finland in May 1955 to meet the venerable composer at his own Sibelius Festival.
‘Sibelius’s music is characterised by constant switches of tempo but Saraste, conducting from memory, negotiated the gear changes with idiomatic empathy, steering his players confidently through the turbulent shoals of the start of the finale to the culminating oceanic currents.’ Barry Millington, Evening Standard, 16 October 2008.
Since 2010 Jukka-Pekka Saraste has been Chief Conductor of the WDR Symphony Orchestra Cologne. He has also been Music Director of the Oslo Philharmonic since 2006. His discography includes the complete symphonies of Sibelius and Nielsen with the Finnish Radio Orchestra, as well as works by Bartók, Dutilleux, Mussorgsky and Prokofiev with the Toronto Symphony Orchestra. His most recent recordings are Mahler Symphony No. 6 and DVD releases of Sibelius Symphonies Nos. 1 and 5 with the Oslo Philharmonic, as well as Mahler Symphony No. 9 with the WDR Symphony Orchestra.
Contents and tracklist
Awards and reviews
February 2012
Both Sibelius works come across very strongly here...Saraste sees these works whole. Always the right thing seems to happen at the right time. The sense of growth from a simple but potent musical seed in the Symphony is as fine as I've ever experienced it...The Lutoslawski too is full of good things and again it builds thrillingly towards the end.
December 2011
This has to be one of the best recordings around of Sibelius's Fifth. And Lutoslawki's Concerto can never have been more brilliantly played.
December 2011
It is not just concert attendees who will be pleased to have this spectacularly deft and rigorous account of Lutoslawski's Concerto for Orchestra on disc...Saraste is in his element here, clarifying the composer's bejewelled textural mosaics while driving forwards and generally inspiring the players to give of their very best.
19th November 2011
Pohjola’s Daughter is very well served here. Jukka-Pekka Saraste’s 2008 RFH performance is electric – fast and exciting where it needs to be, with the darkest, most sinister of openings...Lutosławski’s Concerto for Orchestra makes an unusual coupling. Saraste’s reading is sleazier, grimier than I’ve heard it, moving with a menacing swagger.
