Jean Sibelius: Herbert von Karajan - Complete Sibelius Recordings on Deutsche Grammophon Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		5.0
Video		0.0
Audio		5.0
Extras		3.0
Overall		5.0

Jean Sibelius: Herbert von Karajan - Complete Sibelius Recordings on Deutsche Grammophon Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman August 23, 2021

Herbert von Karajan and Jean Sibelius might seem to be rather strange bedfellows in some ways, with von Karajan's interesting dialectic of balanced control and outsized passion perhaps not appearing at first glance (or listen) to meld all that well with Sibelius' more organic, freewheeling compositional style that might in fact offer passion, but a passion cooled by the icy temperament of a Scandinavian. That said, few might think of Sibelius as having been influenced by the likes of Richard Wagner, and yet Sibelius' use of motives slowly evolving over time probably owes as much to Wagner as to any other influences, and so the fact that von Karajan, long championed for his interpretations of "Teutonic" composers, might do surprisingly well with the music of Sibelius. This new set from Deutsche Grammophon assembles all of von Karajan's recordings for the label featuring the music of the legendary Finnish composer, but not all of the recordings have made it to the audio Blu-ray included on this disc. Of the five CDs also included in the package, the contents of the first four CDs is included on the audio Blu-ray, while the fifth disc, a more recent "digital recording" (back when that was new enough to be emblazoned across the front cover of a release in a marketing ploy), has not been transferred to lossless audio, which some fans may find disappointing. What's here, though, sounds fantastic, and Deutsche Grammophon has perhaps surprisingly included Dolby Atmos mixes on the audio Blu-ray disc.

Liberace was famous for saying he took "all the boring parts out of classical music" to make things accessible for the unwashed masses, and perhaps ironically in that regard it doesn't seem like the bejeweled pianist ever needed to redact one of Sibelius' most famous pieces, Finlandia, since it had evidently already entered the public consciousness. Sibelius in fact was lucky in a way that he had at least a measure of popular success and acclaim that afforded him a certain stature and which probably freed him to pursue his compositional ambitions unimpeded. While the fifth CD here offers "new, improved" interpretations of Finlandia, along with The Swan of Tuonela, Valse Triste, Tapiola and the Suite from Pelléas and Mélisande, the first four CDs which are ported over to the audio Blu-ray contain earlier performances of all of those pieces, with the exception of the Pelléas and Mélisande Suite. Also included are complete performances of Symphonies 4 through 7 and the Violin Concerto. While "completists" will probably ache for the fact that von Karajan didn't manage a complete Sibelius cycle (I'd personally have loved to have heard his take on Sibelius' Symphony No. 2, which is my personal favorite), what's included on the audio Blu-ray disc and accompanying CDs is gorgeously lyrical and emotionally acute.

Jean Sibelius: Herbert von Karajan - Complete Sibelius Recordings on Deutsche Grammophon Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Karajan Sibelius Complete Recordings on Deutsche Grammophon doesn't really have a video element, though the main menu is encoded via AVC and in 1080. I've provided nine screenshots of what is in essence a static menu showing the first and/or only movements of all the pieces included on the audio Blu-ray. This is another release where it really isn't even necessary to have a monitor on to enjoy the release, as long as you have a track listing to refer to, and as long as you remember what the color coded buttons on your remote will do for the audio options (yellow for DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0, red for DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 and green for Dolby Atmos).

Jean Sibelius: Herbert von Karajan - Complete Sibelius Recordings on Deutsche Grammophon Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Karajan Sibelius Complete Recordings on Deutsche Grammophon offers DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 (24 bit/192kHz), DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 (24 bit/96kHz) and Dolby Atmos audio. You can't really go wrong with any of these, though some may feel the Dolby Atmos track doesn't really provide a substantial boost (figurative or otherwise) to the already rather fulsome sounding surround track. This is a nicely spacious set of recordings despite the age of some of the original productions, and the warmth of the brass is especially inviting throughout. The surround track nicely opens up the soundstage both in the more bombastic tutti passages, but also for some of the evocative solos that Sibelius seemed to favor for reeds and/or woodwinds in particular. Fidelity is excellent across the entire frequency spectrum, and there's little to none of the dryness that sometimes was a DG "style point".

Jean Sibelius: Herbert von Karajan - Complete Sibelius Recordings on Deutsche Grammophon Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

These audio Blu-ray releases can be a bit of a sticky wicket when assessing "bonus content", since some purchasers may feel it's the audio Blu-ray disc itself which is the bonus item. That said, as mentioned above, this nicely packaged set also comes with 5 CDs which offer are housed in mini-LP and/or CD cover reproduction sleeves. An insert booklet contains track listings as well as an essay by Thomas Wozonig describing von Karajan's perhaps unexpected love of Sibelius.

Jean Sibelius: Herbert von Karajan - Complete Sibelius Recordings on Deutsche Grammophon Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

I grew up around some spectacularly gifted musicians, including one guy who couldn't just play me under the table, piano wise, but was also skilled enough he could just sit right down in front of manuscript paper (this was in the Dark Ages before notation software) and just write out orchestral music without the aid of any nearby instrument to check out to see if what he was imagining actually was what he was writing down (it was, just to be clear). Those two facts might have made me inordinately jealous of the guy, but actually kind of hilariously the one thing that happened to him that did engender a bit of envy in me was when one day at a job we both shared in college he was whistling the second subject of the first movement of Sibelius' Second Symphony while walking down a hall one day and some random passerby said, "Hey! That's Sibelius' Second Symphony!", which was really a pretty amazing piece of recognition from any number of standpoints. It's unfortunate that von Karajan didn't record all of Sibelius' symphonies for Deutsche Grammophon, but the assembled recordings here are lustrous and gorgeously presented on audio Blu-ray. Highly recommended.