Overtures from Finland Works by Sibelius, Klami, Melartin, Madetoja, Järnefelt, Mielck, Palmgren, Kajanus and Kaski Oulu Sinfonia/Rumon Gamba Chandos CHSA5336 (CD/SACD) 71:32 mins
The Overtures here come with all sorts of qualifying words attached by their composers: dramatic, comedy, lyrical, concert, symphonic. Only a couple could be called familiar outside the boundaries of Scandinavia. There is Armas Järnefelt’s slight, deft and catchy Praeludium, once a popular orchestral ‘lollipop’; and Sibelius’s stirring Karelia Overture, a separate item from the Karelia Suite, but drawn from the same source material, a nationalistic theatrical spectacle held at Helsinki University in 1893. Several others have theatrical roots in this refreshing selection of late- 19th and- early-20th century items, pulled together by Rumon Gamba, the new chief conductor of the Oulu Sinfonia, in the north of Finland.
Unfamiliarity, however, proves no bar to listening pleasure, and performances throughout are polished and sympathetic. Apart from Sibelius’s contribution, the three most obviously striking items are Uuno Klami’s hurtling and mischievous Nuumisuutarit, inspired by a famous 19th-century satirical play, and the newest item here (well, 1936); Ernst Mielck’s meaty Dramatic Overture; and an action-packed Comedy Overture from Leevi Madejota, an inspired symphonist and one of Sibelius’s few pupils. The level of quality dips a little in two pieces: Järnefelt’s Lyric Overture, unusually ponderously orchestrated for the composer of Praeludium, and the late-Romantic waffle of Robert Kajanus’s Overtura sinfonica. All in all, though, the album is a welcome reminder that Sibelius, with his genius acknowledged, never existed in isolation; and that Chandos continues to make some of the most well-presented and best-engineered albums in the world.
Geoff Brown