The Essential SIBELIUS

15 CDs for the price of 6

A generous survey of the music of Jean Sibelius, including the seven symphonies, violin concerto, tone poems and theatre music as well as songs, choral pieces, chamber works and piano music.

Artists include the Lahti Symphony Orchestra / Osmo Vänskä, Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra / Neeme Järvi, Leonidas Kavakos, Anne Sofie von Otter, Monica Groop, Jorma Hynninen, Helsinki University Choir, the Tempera Quartet, Jaakko Kuusisto, Folke Gräsbeck, Erik T. Tawaststjerna and Lasse Pöysti &&&

• The programme includes the world première recording of the melodrama Näcken as well as other previously unreleased material.
• All recordings were produced by BIS Records between 1979 and 2006.
  
• The accompanying 132-page booklet (in English, Finnish, German, French and Japanese) includes all song texts (with English translations).

As part of the countdown to the 50th anniversary of the death of Sibelius, this box offers a panoramic view of a composer who is all too often thought of as 'only' a great symphonist. The Essential Sibelius attempts to rectify this view by presenting a varied selection of all the genres pursued by the Finnish master: besides the seven symphonies, the box also includes the violin concerto, tone poems and theatre music as well as songs, choral pieces, chamber works and piano music.

Pride of place naturally goes to the orchestral works, however - the first four discs consist of the cycle of symphony recordings that made critics dub Osmo Vänskä and the Lahti Symphony Orchestra 'the pre-eminent Sibelius interpreters of our day' when it was first released. The same performers share the task of presenting the other orchestral works - including Finlandia, Kullervo and the theatre music to 'The Tempest', to name but three - with the Gothenburg SO conducted by Neeme Järvi, in recordings that many consider the finest available of this music.

Participating artists include international soloists such as Leonidas Kavakos, whose performance of the violin concerto won a Gramophone Award, and Anne Sofie von Otter, whose interpretations of the songs set a never-surpassed standard, as well as Jorma Hynninen and Monica Groop, heading a field consisting of some of Finland's finest musicians. Again, universally acclaimed masterpieces such as the string quartet Voces intimae are juxtaposed with less well-known gems – including the world première recording of The Watersprite, a brief ‘melodrama’ for mezzo-soprano, narrator and piano trio. In fact, of the more than 19 hours of music in this generous collection, a good one and a half consists of recent, previously unreleased recordings. The accompanying 132-page booklet contains an authoritative essay by Andrew Barnett, one of today's leading Sibelius experts, as well as all song texts.