Buy this album for six minutes of music
mainI’ve never recommended an album before for single track, but there has to be a first time…
This is a personal best, possibly a world record. Never, in four decades of reviewing, have I urged readers to buy a record for just six minutes of music, nor can I think of anyone else who has.
Here’s what you have to do. Skip the opening track of this album of incidental theatre music, a scrappy overture originally intended as a prelude to the second symphony. Shut your eyes and, as track two starts, you will find …
Read my Album of the Week on sinfinimusic.com here.
The album is available for download <in Hi-Res at Qobuz.com.
Just go to Qobuz and search for ‘Sibelius’ and ‘Kuolerna’.
And since you can also buy single tracks in glorious 24 bits – 96.00 kHz definition (as well as standard CD definition if you must; but must you?), for about 2€ apiece, getting the whole first movement, “Tempo di valse lente – Poco risoluto” of Kuolerna for the price of a bottle of coke or an Eskimo pie must be the musical deal of the year. Deal? Make that ‘steal’!
One caveat, though:
Those who have never seen Leif Segerstam conducting — and there must still be a fair number of them in the audience — will never be able to imagine such a delicate confection springing from the Viking hands of a giant who would seem better cast as Ragnar the Red. You don’t know what you’re missing!