The Sibelius Edition Vol.6 - Violin & Piano

The sixth volume in the BIS SIBELIUS EDITION focuses on the composer’s music for violin and piano (and also includes the few works for solo violin). The violin was in fact the composer’s way into music, and during his early youth his main ambition was to become a concert violinist. It is therefore not surprising that, throughout his life, he wrote a number of works for the instrument, including sonatas and suites as well as collections of shorter pieces and independent miniatures. More surprising is how little known Sibelius’s music for violin is – with the shining exception of the violin concerto, of course.

Lovers of that particular work will be pleased to find it included in this set, too, performed with the piano part that the composer himself prepared for publication. (It is a fact that Sibelius made piano transcriptions of many major orchestral works, in which the piano writing is often virtuosic and is clearly designed to be effective in performance.) Sibelius’s transcription of the definitive version is complemented here by the world première recording of a partially reconstructed version for violin and piano of the original 1903–04 score. This is only the second time the original version of the violin concerto has been recorded – the first recording being Leonidas Kavakos’ and Lahti Symphony Orchestra’s pioneering account of it on BIS-CD-500. On the present recording it is the Japanese violinist Madoka Sato (a 1995 prizewinner of the International Sibelius Violin Competition) who takes on the daunting task of performing the work with piano, with the formidable support of Sibelius expert Folke Gräsbeck.

Madoka Sato can also be heard in the other world première recordings included in this volume, while the remaining works are shared by two teams: Jaakko Kuusisto and Folke Gräsbeck concentrating on the youthful works, and Nils-Erik Sparf and Bengt Forsberg appearing mainly in the published pieces. Their performances were highly praised at the time of the release of the original discs, as shown by the following quotes: ‘The soloists, violinist Kuusisto and pianist Gräsbeck, display consummate expertise as partners as well as in their individual expressions’ (Classics Today.com) and ‘Sparf is highly sensitive and imaginative, and he and his accomplished partner make the most of the opportunities this repertoire provides’ (Gramophone).