Sibelius: Symphonies Nos. 3 and 4. Yannick Nézet-Séguin, conductor; Orchestre Métropolitain de Montréal. ATMA Classique ACD 22454.
(Although this disc came out last year, I am reviewing it here in preparation for my forthcoming write-up of its successor at Classical Candor.)
Here we go again: more problematic Sibelius by a conductor whose temperament is unsuited to Sibelius. And this time I've noticed people who should know better heaping on the praise. For instance, the reviewer at Gramophone says this (quoted from Presto Music's website):
"I would not have had Nézet-Séguin down as a natural Sibelian, and I would have been completely wrong...A Wagnerian melos imbues the conductor’s handling of Sibelius’s syntax throughout..."
Think about that for a minute: a "natural" Sibelian inflects his Sibelius with a "Wagnerian melos." But anyone who really gets these symphonies, or has read much Sibelius literature, knows that Wagnerian anything is quite out of place with the leaner, less effusive direction these works marked. The Third Symphony is often considered to be the turning point in Sibelius's output, with many identifying in it a fresh, "classical" outlook. YNS's "Wagnerian melos," as far as it goes, is misplaced here. We need clarity and crispness, and instead we get too much sludge.
My issues start right away in the Third's opening movement. Like too many other conductors, YNS wants to take a relatively slow tempo. I imagine they'd point to the score's Allegro moderato indication as rationale. But I think the "moderato" is there to keep conductors from running away with the "allegro." A higher-end Allegro bpm range of 130-150 would indeed be too quick. But going too far in the opposite direction sounds almost as bad. A glance at the internet tells me that people generally consider Allegro moderato to be around 116-120 bpm. YNS is at about 114 to start. That's not so far off the mark, but my taste is for the range's upper barrier at 120, which my preferred performance by Jukka-Pekka Saraste and the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra (RCA 09026-60434-2) adopts. Okay, 114 isn't anything to get too upset over. (Davis and the LSO are much worse offenders on LSO Live LSO0552.) But it's just another thing in combination with more objectionable things...
Already at the secondary theme (Rehearsal 3) we're a bit too gooey in the dolce cello melody, and not marcato enough in the upper strings accompaniment. Nor is there enough hiccup with the scored rests in the horns and bassoons at Rehearsal 4. In other words, already things are not sufficiently articulated...which is reminiscent of this series' First Symphony outing. Worse, YNS just absolutely milks the Tranquillo at Rehearsal 5, and it takes him until the following Rehearsal to recover his pace (such as it is). For long after, the running 16th-notes in the strings feeling too anemic, and the horn support distractingly loud. It's all hazy and soft-edged, like Wagner in his some of his calmer moments. The atmosphere is perfume-ish when it should be sunny and vigorous. When the return of the main theme is supposed to come roaring back at 3 measures after Rehearsal 10, YNS backs off of the climax too much like he does in the First Symphony. And builds to this and other high points are too labored. When the secondary theme gets restated later in the movement (at Rehearsal 13), the timpani strikes oddly dominate the texture – another strange imbalance in a performance marked by them.
The second movement adopts an okay tempo...a bit slow for my taste, but fine. More seriously, the timbral balance is off; the tones of the woodwinds and strings are on the mushy side when each are prominent. Melodic lines are simply not sharply articulated enough. And once more, YNS milks the Tranquillo in this movement, as well as the measures immediately preceding it (between Rehearsals 6 and 7), though perhaps not as badly as in the previous section. He also dwells overlong on the string chords here, giving the music a decidedly Lohengrin Prelude feeling that doesn't belong...and which would easily be avoided by more motion and less rubato. Similar problems inhibit the rest of the movement, including intermittently inaudible plucked strings under the main theme in the lovely passage starting around Rehearsal 8. Occasional tempo slowdowns almost lose the pulse.
I could point to many similar problems in the finale, but I'd sound like a broken record. I'll just content myself with a few points. First, there are several tempo fluctuations that Sibelius indicates in the score in the first section of this two-part movement. While YNS loves to slow down when instructed, he's less fond of speeding up again (or at least speeding up again especially soon). Sometimes he simply invents irritating tempo disruptions, like at 5 measures after Rehearsal 5 when a soft and kind of swinging string accompaniment re-emerges. This just gets BOGGED down. Even when he speeds up again at the directed Allegro before Rehearsal 7, it's not enough. Why conduct like this?? At Rehearsal 8 we FINALLY get a decent climax, but only because Sibelius marked the buildup cresc.possible, and the apex triple forte. Apparently that's what it takes to give YNS a shot in the arm. This is good for a nice stretch of punchy measures to follow. But with the emergence of the chorale theme a little after Rehearsal 13 we're back to sludginess. This new area is marked a tempo, con energia. But if there is one thing YNS lacks overall, it's sufficient energy. Here he'd rather fixate on Sibelius's pitch accents instead of any steady pace. There's even a Sempre energico at Rehearsal 14. But nope, everything just lurches along to the end.
I've gone down a rabbit hole here. I apologize. (I have a special affection for the Third Symphony.) I'll wrap up. In general I find YNS only marginally more successful in the Fourth, if only because this is a darker, more ponderous work that at times better absorbs his flakiness. He gets some nice surges of sound in the opening movement, and definitely understands the plot here better. But with the second movement we're back to more mush. The biggest problem with the third movement is the lack of payoff with the big tune at the end. Too much brass/percussion, and not enough strings. The character here is all wrong. This isn't Wotan and the Gods entering Valhalla; it's pent-up psychological energy bursting to get out. And we just don't get that. To make matters worse, the sudden relief of light that should come with the opening of the finale instead arrives like a few dull rays of sun poking through the clouds...with more dynamic and articulative sludge. Limpness reigns supreme, especially in a lifeless, needlessly drawn-out conclusion. This is a Fourth that occasionally succeeds but lacks proper vision in total. Do yourselves a favor and stick with the infinitely more compelling offerings by Karajan, Davis (BSO), Vanska, Bernstein, and others out there. Leave this one and its soggy Third companion to languish.
Avoid
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