Sibelius: The Origin of Fire (Osmo Vänskä)

Jean Sibelius: The Origin of Fire (Osmo Vänskä, Lahti Symphony Orchestra)

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This is a very appealing disc of Sibelius choral music, though some of the items have appeared previously in BIS’s ongoing series, either in alternate versions or different performances. To make a long story short, all of the items here consist of arrangements for male choir and orchestra, or works written for that particular configuration. In the case of The Origin of Fire and Sandels, you get the original and revised versions. These really don’t differ much from one another although “The Origin” is a bit longer in its first incarnation by virtue of some initial repetition and different transitional material.

Other important pieces that find the composer in excellent form, and which you may not know, are The Rapids Rider’s Brides (originally for baritone and orchestra), and above all the splendid cantata The Captive Queen, with its melodic similarities to the finale of the contemporaneous Second Symphony. Rakastava (The Lover) is represented by its “interim” version, for male choir and string orchestra. The remainder of the program, including the March of the Finnish Jäger Battalion and two more of about a million versions of Har do Mod? (Have you Courage?), are popular, vigorous patriotic pieces neither better nor worse than others of their type.

As might be expected from Vänskä and his Lahti orchestra, the interpretations are wholly sympathetic and very exciting. The YL Male Voice Choir sings very well throughout, even in the extremely difficult Rakastava, and with plenty of guts in the patriotic works. The one caveat is the baritone solo of Tommi Hakala in The Origin of Fire: his insensitivity to dynamics and tendency to shout mar much of his opening narrative. Excellent sonics, as we have come to expect from this source, do the music proud. In sum, an almost perfect disc whose interest to Sibelians (seven of the ten tracks are world-premiere recordings) makes it a mandatory acquisition. 

[Review by: David Hurwitz]