Importance of Sibelius

Sibelius's music has never lacked great leaders to defend it. To take the second half of the twentieth century Karajan, Bernstein, Barbirolli, Maazel, Rozhdestvensky among others have championed the Finnish bard. Yet despite this, for reasons that I believe the relative geographical marginality of Finland only partially explains the ideological blinders musical will also have their share, Sibelius's music could not win the general public to its actual level, ie to the highest peaks of symphonic music.
It was not until the 90/2010 years for a host of talented Finnish leaders (what nursery!), Benefit strength and high-quality recordings give the decisive blow of kidneys to the full recognition of the genius of their compatriot (Sibelius national glory of Finland). Thus Osmo Vanska, Jukka-Pekka Saraste, Esa-Pekka Salonen, their younger Tuomas Ollila and Mikko Franck, and their elders Paavo Berglund and Leif Segerstam have offered us Sibeliennes remarkable achievements.
It was in 1996 at the head of the Helsinki Philharmonic Segerstam that engraved the "Lemminkainen Legends" and "Tapiola" absolutely hair-raising. "Lemminkainen Legends" date from 1900, Sibelius was 35 years old and most of his work was yet to come, "Tapiola" written in 1925 is the last work of Sibelius. Both are inspired by Nordic legends but in the meantime the musical language of Sibelius has evolved. This one has all his life refined his art in constant evolution, always seeking to be closer to his musical truth. Beethoven was the central figure in the pantheon of music Sibelius, to listen to this Dionysian power outburst is understandable that affinity, but also shared with the great Ludwig a determination to chart its own course, profoundly original, without being deflected.
The four tables that make up "Legends Lemminkainen" inspired Sibelius to an enchanting and voluptuous music. "The Swan of Tuonela" reporting to the time of symbolism (swans gliding on the river water that surrounds the underworld) captivates us in a beautiful, poisonous sound world through worrying growls. The other three pieces impetuous, disheveled, take us through maelstroms, explosions, open bites, haunted forests, lullaby magical and rides in a magnificent journey of great thematic richness. I can not help but think that Sibelius is designed specifically for the souls of young men (at least that old teenagers) who dream by reading the novels of Walter Scott or the saga of the eric red. It is a world of manly and sophisticated epic.
From the first bars of "Tapiola" we know we are in a hostile universe (that of Tapio, the god of forests) or we move with extreme caution, fearing that the sky is falling on your head ... and he ends up falling with terrifying violence. This is what it costs to desecrate a sacred space! This vast symphonic poem in modern writing was a sort of will, somehow prescient of future disasters. In the last 30 years of his life Sibelius said that his creativity was paralyzed by the changing world he observed.
I know two other versions of "Lemminkainen Legends" as beautiful as the other, that of Eugene Ormandy and the Paavo Jarvi. At this level of excellence is a matter of subjectivity: it seems that the version of Segerstam and musicians Helsinki, the most idiomatic, is the one that most closely approximates the epic and mysterious character of the work.
Regarding "Tapiola" the gold standard for decades is version of Hans Rosbaud particularly apocalyptic, but there are many very beautiful, and that of Segerstam leaving a bright dawn dawn, uncluttered (boreal?) after the crash one of them.
Today the music of Sibelius is fully recognized, except in France or the rationalist dryness sometimes borders on spiritual blindness. It is without doubt his character but never simplistic tonic helps to infuse vitality to many of our contemporaries struck depressed. It is perhaps also, more profoundly, because Sibelius musically solved the problem that plagues so many minds for a century and a half: that of identity and universalism. Sibelius is watered to the roots of Finnish myths, he draws a lively music, gushing, clear, but his perspective is the vast world, the sixth, seventh symphonies and "Tapiola". From this point of view "Tapiola" highlight of his work is exemplary since Karelian born of a legend, it is addressed, beyond time, to contemporary man and its environmental and nuclear fears.