Sibelius

COMPOSERS: Sibelius
LABELS: CPO,Telarc
ALBUM TITLE: Kullervo
PERFORMER: Charlotte Hellekant (mezzo-soprano),

Nathan Gunn (baritone); Atlanta

Symphony Men’s Chorus & Orchestra/

Robert Spano



Kullervo

Satu Vihavainen (soprano), Juha

Uusitalo (bass-baritone); KYL Male

Chorus; Staatsphilharmonie

Rheinla
CATALOGUE NO: CD-80665 ¥ CPO 777 196-2

Sibelius’s symphonic portrait of



the Kalevala’s anti-hero was his



breakthrough work, thrillingly



asserting Finland’s musical identity



and his own; but, always self-critical,



he withdrew it. Paavo Berglund’s



revelatory premiere recording (on



EMI) was made only in 1970; now a



dozen more, especially Berglund (on



EMI again), Osmo Vänskä (BIS)



and Sir Colin Davis (LSO Live),



offer stiff competition. Having heard Robert Spano’s



2005 Ring at Seattle, I was



disappointed to find his Kullervo



so lacklustre. He cramps the first



movement’s atmospheric opening



theme and continues choppily, with



some tentative playing; the second,



‘Kullervo’s Youth’, drags, missing the



cradle-song quality Sibelius specified.



The third movement’s allegro vivace



opening disappoints at the great



choral entry; neither they nor Spano



grasp the springy Finnish rhythms



and stresses Sibelius agonized over.



You don’t have to be Finnish to get



this right, as the LSO Chorus in



Davis’s benchmark version show.



Nor do the Swedish and American



soloists sound idiomatic. The fourth



movement, Kullervo’s ride to battle,



begins brightly, and the chorus fare



better in the doomladen last, but the



effect is still shallow.



The new CPO recording



highlights all too clearly what



the Telarc lacks. Rising Finn Ari



Rasilainen shows us Kullervo the



national epic with a vengeance,



large-scale and bursting with creative



energy, vibrantly played and quite



spectacularly recorded in SACD



surround-sound. His pacing is sure



and detailed, vividly dramatic and



alive to the shifting colours of this



young man’s score. Right from the



expansive opening theme, the first



movement fluently surges forward



with ardour, yet the second begins



with exactly the right baleful,



foreboding tenderness. The third



excites as it builds up to the entry of



the splendid chorus – of the Helsinki



Business College no less. The



soloists are Finnish National Opera



stalwarts, Satu Vihavainen touching



in her narration, Juha Uusitaalo, now



a leading international Wagnerian,



singing Kullervo’s lament with



tormented power; the choral overlap



behind his first entry sounds



misjudged, but this is minor. The



fourth movement’s martial colours



positively blaze, and the finale’s eerie



opening leads to a searing catharsis.



Much as I admire other versions,



this one really gripped me with



its idiomatic, atmospheric vigour.



If it misses some of Davis’s dark



poetry, it recreates the excitement



Kullervo aroused at its premiere; and



although both are excellent SACDs,



CPO’s studio recording scores



in immediacy, detail and choral



perspective over LSO Live’s slightly



dry Barbican acoustic. For me



Rasilainen joins Davis as benchmark,



and might suit a newcomer better.