However, Rouvali is hardly a Wunderkind, being now in his late thirties, and I absolutely love his recordings of the five symphonies so far in the series. Several MWI colleagues and correspondents have agreed, but I have indeed encountered one who hates what he does, so perhaps opinion remains divided, even if in my experience not so equally, the dissenters being fewer.
I made Rouvali's Second a "Recommended" recording, and it is now my favourite version:
SIBELIUS Symphony No. 2, King Christian II Suite - ALPHA CLASSICS 574 [RMo] Classical Music Reviews: March 2020 - MusicWeb-International
and I made his Third & Fifth a "Recording of the Month", then one of my "Recordings of the Year 2023":
Sibelius: Symphonies 3 & 5 (Alpha) - MusicWeb International
On the strength of those and previous reviews from colleagues, I bought Rouvali's First and loved that, too, and I like his Fourth so much (review forthcoming shortly) that it has virtually converted me to a symphony I have always hitherto found hard going.
Regarding Mäkelä, several MusicWeb colleagues went out of their way to praise his Sibelius set as superb:
https://www.musicweb-international.com/classrev/2022/Nov/Sibelius-sys-4852256.htm
https://www.musicweb-international.com/classrev/2022/May/Sibelius-sys-4852256.htm
SIBELIUS Symphonies DECCA 485 2256 [RWe] Classical Music Reviews: May 2022 - MusicWeb-International
They are not alone; Edward Seckerson of Gramophone and BBC Music Magazine were very enthusiastic, Seckerson calling Mäkelä's set "An uber-auspicious debut".
To my ears, Mäkelä throws himself into music. The outer movements of the First are, if anything, a bit over-stated but they are certainly exciting - and the sound is so good. The second movement is thrilling - in fact, the whole performance is a blast and the Big Tune in the finale is wonderful before a truly grand peroration. The Second is simply lovely - again, the translucent sound does so much to reveal the individual instrumental strands of the score. Just occasionally, I do get the sense of too much "point-making" but at least it's never bland in the manner of so many modern recordings; these are (to borrow a cliché) immediate "red-blooded" performances, although perhaps sometimes the emotionalism is too overt and insufficiently graduated. So it goes throughout the series to a really impressive Seventh, even if, for me, nothing beats Ormandy and Karajan in that and occasionally, for the first time in this cycle, I felt that some momentum, coherence and flow were somewhat lacking but it is still beautifully played.
By contrast, I listened to YNS' First and Third on YouTube and found them both to be thoroughly boring: dull, listless, nerveless, without tension and not especially well played. The first movement of the First is choppy and episodic, lacking in flow and legato, with lots of sudden surges and diminishments in volume which make no sense. The orchestral sound is thin, too. The second movement is slack and lacklustre. The Scherzo is fine - but nobody can get that wrong - although, again, the orchestral sound isn't luscious. The finale is a run-through; I derive little sense of coherence from his account. Regarding the Third, again, to me, it sounds as if it is being sight-read for the first time; I can't believe how little presence the first appearance of the Big Tune in the finale has; the orchestra sounds like a chamber group, while the climax is suddenly cranked up without any real preparation and remains underwhelming to the last gasp.
What irks me is how many of DH's followers evidently treat his word as Gospel without even bothering to listen to the recordings.
All of which goes to illustrate how subjective musical response and criticism can be.
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