Currie Lahti Symphony Orchestra Slobodeniouk - Sieidi / Symphony 5 - SUPER-AUDIO CD [Super Audio CD (SACD)]

The term sinfonietta is generally used to describe a work that is smaller in scale or lighter in approach than a standard symphony. It only came into common usage during the first half of the 20th century, which is when the three works included on this disc were in fact composed. Worth noting is also that Sergei Prokofiev and Benjamin Britten wrote their respective sinfoniettas while they were still in their teens - early attempts at multi-movement works for ensemble. Prokofiev revised his Sinfonietta twice, with the 1929 version recorded here, and went on to become one of the great symphonists of his time. Britten chose a different path, with operas forming the most important part of his legacy. Perhaps symptomatically, his Sinfonietta - his Op. 1 - was initially composed for wind quintet and string quintet, a scoring which he later expanded into the version heard on the present recording. Like Britten, Francis Poulenc was not naturally inclined towards large-scale orchestral works, and his Sinfonietta is indeed his only symphonic piece. The most recent of the works on the disc, it is in a neo-classical vein with sparkling dance rhythms as well as lyrical moments. The three works are here performed by the Lahti Symphony Orchestra conducted by Dima Slobodeniouk, a team which has released several highly acclaimed albums on BIS. Details 1. Sinfonietta FP 141~I. Allegro con fuoco 2. Sinfonietta FP 141~II. Molto vivace 3. Sinfonietta FP 141~III. Andante cantabile 4. Sinfonietta FP 141~IV. Finale. Prestissimo et très gai 5. Sinfonietta in A major Op. 5~I. Allegro giocoso 6. Sinfonietta in A major Op. 5~II. Andante 7. Sinfonietta in A major Op. 5~III. Intermezzo. Vivace 8. Sinfonietta in A major Op. 5~IV. Scherzo. Allegro risoluto 9. Sinfonietta in A major Op. 5~V. Allegro giocoso 10. Sinfonietta, Op. 1~I. Poco presto ed agitato 11. Sinfonietta, Op

Throughout his career, Sergei Prokofiev wrote a large number of works for the stage - some of them highly successful, others less so. Whichever the case, Prokofiev would rarely miss the opportunity of recycling the score in one way or another - staying more or less close to the original in an orchestral suite or using it as material for a completely new work, such as the Third and Fourth symphonies (based on the ballet The Prodigal Son and the opera The Fiery Angel, respectively.) The present combines suites created from Prokofiev's very first opera (The Gambler, 1915-17) and his very last ballet (The Stone Flower, 1948-53). Based on a short novel by Dostoyevsky, The Gambler doesn't have separate numbers that can easily be detached. Instead Prokofiev created 'portraits' of the four main characters, by re-assembling the music associated with them throughout the opera. The plot of The Tale of the Stone Flower was based on a collection of folk and fairy tales from mining communities of the Ural Mountains, and Prokofiev composed a 150-minute score in an idiom relying on folk elements and nineteenth-century musical traditions. While waiting for official permission to have the ballet performed, he planned a number of orchestral suites. On this recording, the Lahti Symphony Orchestra and their principal conductor Dima Slobodeniouk splice together two of these compilations the Wedding Suite, Op.126 and the Gypsy Fantasy, Op.127, both of which were performed before the ballet itself, in 1951. The result is preceded by the opening of the actual ballet, entitled The Mistress of the Copper Mountain. These suites frame the brief Autumnal Sketch, one of the composer's earliest acknowledged works for orchestra.

The Kalevala is a compilation of mostly original folk poetry, arranged into fifty extensive runos ('poems') by the Finnish physician and folklorist Elias Lönnrot. Beginning with the creation of the world, it develops into a series of separate episodes which nevertheless form a rich whole, introducing epic characters such as Väinämöinen, Lemminkäinen and Kullervo. The collection first appeared in 1835, with a final, extended version being published in 1849, and was soon hailed as Finland's 'national epos' - a sensitive matter given that the country had been subjected to Russian rule since 1809. It came to play a major part in Finland's national awakening and had a massive influence on Finnish art in the late 19th century, but it's role in the national consciousness remains important even today. The present album, from the Lahti Symphony Orchestra and Dima Slobodeniouk, brings together Kalevala-related works spanning the period between 1897 and 1943. No such collection could overlook Sibelius, who composed several works inspired by the epos. Included here is a rarity - the first recording of the 1897 version of Lemminkäinen in Tuonela, from the Lemminkäinen Suite. Finnish composers from later generations all had to find a way out from under Sibelius's shadow - especially so when composing works based on the Kalevala. The portraits of Kullervo which bookend the disc, by Leevi Madetoja and Tauno Pylkkänen, are both compact works in contrast to Sibelius's large-scale 'choral symphony' on the same theme, and when Uuno Klami used bold and primitive colors in his five-movement Kalevala Suite, he was looking towards Stravinsky rather than his countryman.