Sibelius: Kullervo, Op. 7
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Music CD Cover Performer: Raimo Laukka Composer: Jean Sibelius Conductor: Osmo Vänskä Performer: Lilli Paasikivi Orchestra: Lahti Symphony Orchestra Edition: Music CD CD Release Date: 2001-04-24 Music Label: Bis Soundtracks:
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Free Music Notes for Sibelius: Kullervo, Op. 7 Album
Free Music Review: Must-have recording of an atmospheric masterpiece
Hit: 5 Stars
I know just about every version of Kullervo as yet recorded, and I'd say that this is, by a comfortable margin, the most impressive of them all. Vänskä and his musicians completely inhabit this magnificent music. One can barely believe that Sibelius had serious plans to destroy this work, and we can only thank Providence that he didn't get round to actually doing so. Youthful, at times naïve it may be, but this ambitious choral symphony is one of the most overwhelming things the composer ever wrote, and an undoubted work of genius. It brims with original and instantly memorable melody, rhythm and orchestration - the notorious sextuplets in the first movement may be the bane of oboists the world over, but what a sound, what inspiration! The hallmarks of later, mature Sibelius are already in evidence throughout (runic inspired melody, ostinato rhythms, woodwind melodies in thirds, widespread use of triplets) - yet many listeners will probably find this work more easily accessible than the concentrated spareness of the somewhat esoteric late works. The lure of this particular recording is enhanced by spacious, natural, wide-ranging sound.
In five tableaux, Kullervo tells the tragic story of the eponymous hero from Kalevala, the Finnish national epic compiled from folk poetry in the mid-nineteenth century by Elias Lönnrot. The introductory first movement sets the scene. Over undulating string figuration clarinets and horns intone the lofty, wide-ranging main theme of the symphony; there is an instant sense of vast, windswept landscapes and dark, autumnal woods. The mystery is enhanced by Vänskä's observance of the mezzoforte marking. After the strings have given their impassioned rendering of this melody, woodwinds introduce a more folk-like second idea. A solo horn adds a mournful motif starting with a falling second that will return in the final movement. The strings elaborate this idea in a passage carrying the seeds of the funeral march that appears towards the end of the movement, which will return in the finale.
The second movement, "Kullervo's Youth", is taken more slowly by Vänskä than by any of his competition. Rightly so - it is marked Grave, and as much as a lullaby it is a dirge. (Being the son of a mother who repeteadly tried to kill him, and eventually sold him as a slave to a couple who delighted in tormenting him, Kullervo's youth can hardly be called a happy affair.) This is a movement of profound beauty, its brooding main theme offset by heartrending harmonies. The sweet-natured second theme has again a more folks-songlike character, and is shot through with rapid descending scales from a solo violin, like flashes of light. Vänskä's feeling for atmosphere is as unerring as the response from the Lahti players - unapologetically, he adds over 4 minutes to the reading by, say, Colin Davis, whose march-like, foursquare approach leads much of this piece straight into ruin.
The dramatic core of the work is reached in the extended third movement, "Kullervo and his sister". Folk-influence is strong here, as exemplified by the vigorous 5/4 time. After an exuberant orchestral introduction, the male chorus enters to recount the story of Kullervo's fateful meeting with a girl who turns out to be his supposedly dead sister. Many conductors cannot resist the temptation to go for a spectacular, all-out choral entry, but Vänskä sticks to Sibelius's mezzoforte marking - it is part of his meticulous long-term planning, with the culmination of the symphony projected towards its very end. Which is not to say that the singing of the Helsinki University Chorus lacks anything in energy, on the contrary. Eventually, Kullervo and his sister themselves appear on the stage and the choral cantata mutates into an operatic scena. Some listeners may be taken aback by the semi-sprechgesang entry of the singers (the soprano at the premiere complained that some musicians at the first rehearsal doubled up with laughter after she had uttered her opening phrase), but soon enough the solo singing blends in magically with orchestral backgrounds full of subtle beauties. The dialogue between baritone and soprano leads up to the catastrophic, incestuous love-scene: here Sibelius has written passionate music that makes the spine tingle, full of dissonant beauty and underpinned by an insistent pounding rhythm - clear foreshadowings of Bartok's Bluebeard. Now Kullervo tells the girl who he is, and in an extended passage carried forward by an obsessive galloping motif the sister then recounts her own history. The tender nature imagery that is evoked in the orchestra is handled with exquisite sensitivity, and the emotional shadings of the vocal part are no less perfectly judged by Lilli Paasikivi. At the end of her monologue a hollow, fff wind chord leads into a four-bar silence - exactly observed, unlike in any other recording. The movement concludes with Kullervo's lament, underpinned by fierce chords on the full orchestra - Raimo Laukka is extremely impressive here, sounding completely sincere.
The fourth movement, "Kullervo goes to war", is the most conventional of the five. The singers are silent while the orchestra engages itself with a catchy march-tune that is restated in ever more complex, ever more exhilarating variations. Midway, the great main theme puts in an appearance disguised as a heroic fanfare. Thus we arrive at Kullervo's death, the final movement, where the brutal end of the tragedy is conjured up from shady beginnings. The first movement's horn call is heard, adding to the sense of foreboding. The gradual, inexorable crescendo of the chorus is riveting, and reaches an almost unbearable intensity when Kullervo drops himself on his sword, overcome by the shameful memory of his sin. The funeral march now returns, and the symphony concludes with a darkly majestic restatement of the main theme, surrounded by stormy strings. It is the culmination of the well-graded, perfectly controlled crescendo that Vänskä has built up over the symphony as a whole, and his finale has greater emotional impact than any other I've heard. It has the power to haunt you for days. This simply demands to be heard.