Sibelius - Nielsen - Berwald

The conductor Herbert Blomstedt was 97 when this live recording was made in Tokyo in 2024, and the accumulated wisdom of the years permeates all three pieces. The achingly eloquent string polyphony at the opening of Sibelius’ tone-poem The Swan of Tuonela signals both the high quality of the NHK Symphony Orchestra, and Blomstedt’s undiminished ability to shape compelling musical paragraphs. Kei Ito, the orchestra’s principal clarinet, is the soloist in Nielsen’s Clarinet Concerto, and together he and Blomstedt catch vividly the mercurial mood-flips of the opening section. Ito probes deeply into the first unaccompanied cadenza, and finds wit and elegance in the concerto’s dashing finale. Sharp woodwind detail and energised rhythms mark the opening movement of Franz Berwald’s Fourth Symphony, where Blomstedt clearly relishes the music’s healthy, open-air ambience. The slow movement has the sweet lyricism of Berwald’s contemporary Schubert, and Blomstedt’s bracing account of the finale brings this richly enjoyable programme to an invigorating conclusion.