A right way to play Sibelius? Oh, fffff’s sake.

A right way to play Sibelius? Oh, fffff’s sake.

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norman lebrecht

April 22, 2015

The silliest piece of the Sibelius year, so far.

A London critic didn’t like the Berlin Philharmonic performances of the Sibelius symphonies because they’re not what he’s used to. So he concludes they cannot be right.

Then the critic equivocates a bit before deciding that the performances paid ‘little heed to the spirit of a score.’

As if that can spirit be defined, bottled and marketed as authentic.

Music in print is an approximation of an imagined sound. Interpreters exist to make sense of it, according to their own lights – northern or otherwise.

Read here. Sad to see such nonsense in the Strad, and from a former Gramophone writer.

sibelius gallen-kalleia-drunk

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