The Quebec label Atma publishes the coupling of the Symphonies nbone 2 And 5 by Jean Sibelius. This clever association of the Finnish composer’s two most famous symphonic works is also a major milestone in the discography of Yannick Nézet-Séguin and the Orchester Métropolitain.
The publication of the 2e Symphony by Sibelius comes at just the right time a few days before a concert where the Orchester Métropolitain and its conductor will present at Carnegie Hall the program which opened their 2023-2024 season, a concert on the occasion of which this 2e Symphony by Sibelius had been recorded. ” They are ready ! » we then headlined, and the record further reinforces the very positive impression of the concert.
Thoroughness
We remember very well the beginning of the Sibelius Metropolitan cycle. The publication of the 1D Symphony had fallen a little flat, because, at the same time, the musical world was amazed by the glitter of the emerging complete work of the young Finn Santtu-Matias Rouvali (Alpha), without noticing that the great spectacular or unheard of effects (in the sense own) were done to the detriment of fidelity to the score. Over the past five years, the “Rouvali system” has begun to reveal itself and crack. Yannick Nézet-Séguin’s loyalty pays off in the long term.
And if we mention this here, it is because the meticulousness of the cutting, the way of intelligently swinging such an instrument here or there (listen to the woodwinds in the 1er movement of the 2e between 1 min 58 and 2 min 28, or the quivering of the bass strings at 4 min 40 of the finale of the 5e Symphony), the dosage of nuance with which this or that breathing will unfold, this or that change of theme will take place, are weighed and mastered with meticulousness and intelligence.
Yannick Nézet-Séguin avoids the most damaging thing in Sibelius: the headlong flight. The conductor frames the music as one frames a landscape in a painting (2e movement of the 5e Symphony). Sometimes, we have the impression (well, especially its detractors) that Sibelius is a bit of stupid notes lined up and repeated. But here, on the contrary, the 2e movement of the 5e shows us the weight of things, which the conductor also expresses, a little further on, in the sound, with the density of the treatment of the brass at the start of the coda. This tension builds after 5 minutes in the last movement, with an explosion of this core in various places (at 7:32 in particular).
Banking on the intelligence of the dynamics and the lines of force of this music, Yannick Nézet-Séguin and his orchestra achieve a sumptuous coupling of the two great Sibelian symphonies after a CD of Symphonies nbone 3 And 4 marked by a 4e Symphony more halftone.
Back in orbit, then. And in the most important part of the cycle.