Sibelius: Belshazzar's Feast

 

Have you ever started listening to music and realize you aren't listening to what you expected?

Since I am largely unfamiliar with Sibelius' incidental music, I had planned on starting this Naxos set with Kuolema, but had somehow inserted the CD from this entry instead.

I eventually came around to the conclusion I was listening to the wrong program through track timings and misplaced vocal solos. Oh well...

Compared to The Tempest (BLOG), another piece of incidental music from Finnish composer Jean Sibelius, here is a work of substance I can wrap my head around. Belshazzar's Feast is based upon a story from the Bible focusing around the Babylonian King and his assassination.

This is colorful, sometimes exotic-sounding music, and where I mentioned I could wrap my head around it, the music has good-sized chunks of music instead of really short bits and bobs strung together. I think the shorter length works better too, where the music follows a cogent dramatic arc as well.

I won't go on saying this is the end-all be-all of Sibelius' music, yet it is colorful and appealing all the same. The one vocal solo from this recording appears here as The Song of the Jewish Girl, sung well enough by Finnish soprano Pia Pajala, who features across this entire Naxos set.

As Belshazzar's Feast times only just over 20 minutes in length, the rest of the album is filled with shorter miscellany. Despite it early date in the composer's career, I am all for the Overture in E Major. Sure, it bears an awkward length and strange transitions, but what ebullient celebratory music opposite both sturdy and plaintive modal portions. So too, the Scènes de Ballet is a fantastical sounding waltz, some places reminding me of how close Finland sits next to Russia. I love the colorful flourishes of exoticism prevalent opposite a rather sly musical mood.

The four single movement Wedding March, Cortège, Menuetto, and Processional are of variable quality and memorability, all worthy of a hearing. These are fully Romantic creations, and if the titles and the actual music don't mesh, leave it to Sibelius to make an individual composition full of harmonic beauty and orchestral color. I especially like the bright sound of concert bells in the Menuetto, the longing Romanticism between the lightest of marches in the Wedding March, not to mention the lush, sentimental tunefulness of the Processional. If the Cortège reminds this listener of Grieg, nothing here is lessened through such comparisons.

My greater appreciation of recordings lately has lain on how well I can hear the bassoons amongst the orchestral ensemble. This Naxos recording is another where the winds have a hearty stance amongst the strings, well enough to hear flute, oboe, clarinet, and bassoon on a equal plane, and I love it. 

So too, I always thought Leif Segerstam had a fine way with strings, particularly their sound quality as an ensemble, and that is the case here with the Turku Philharmonic Orchestra. If this first look into Segerstam's set of Incidental Music from Sibelius on Naxos is any measure, I should have a lovely time with the rest of the series. Let's hope I get my next listening session correct.

 

Works
Belshazzar's Feast, JS 48 (21.28)
Overture in E Major, JS 145 (11.41)
Scène de Ballet, JS 163 (7.59)
Wedding March, JS 62 (4.55)
Cortège, JS 54 (6.49)
Menuetto, JS 127 (5.45)
Processional, op. 133 no. 6 (4.24)

Soloists
Pia Pajala, soprano

Ensembles
Turku Philharmonic Orchestra
Jukka-Pekka Saraste, conductor

Label: Naxos
Year: 2015
Total Timing: 63.01

 

 

 

Beautiful and praiseworthy music from Sibelius. 

These pieces might not be the finest from the Finnish composer, but they are immensely attractive nonetheless.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Find more Sibelius recordings HERE!