I’ve just been listening to a recent live performance of Sibelius’ Symphony No. 3 by the Halle Orchestra conducted by Mark Elder. It was very well played and conducted with great care and intensity; however, Elder seemed to care more about balance than power in the climaxes and so the performance as a whole lacked stature.

On the other hand, this symphony is problematic. It’s no wonder Karajan neither played nor recorded it. He recorded all the Sibelius symphonies several times but never the Third.

Karajan never said so publicly but perhaps he felt, as many do, that the symphony is seriously flawed. The slow movement is a beautiful but pretty much uneventful theme and variations, and the finale is no more than promising; it leaves the impression of being unfinished. It has the same kind of reiteration of the main tune one finds in the finale of the Second Symphony but without the breadth and structural mastery to bring it to fruition.

At best, Sibelius’Symphony No.3  is a sketch for a symphonic movement. The first movement has some of that same feeling of being over before it has really started.

 

  Add to Technorati Favorites