The Most Important Recording Projects Ever (No. 4: The BIS Sibelius Complete Edition)

[@scp240]

Presto Music is currently discounting BIS recordings by up to 35%. They appear to have in stock all of the boxed sets in the complete edition. Just sayin...

[@ewmbr1164]

YES! YES! YES! BIS is a marvelous label, and their Sibelius edition is sublime. I dare to say: it is its own splendid monument.

[@timothyweir8790]

It's an incredible achievement in recording. Loved collecting it back in the day.

[@badger1492]

The BIS recordings on CD in the 80s were ground-breaking! They are still among my favorites. Glad to see others agree. They continue to make great recordings.

[@hamidrezahabibi8111]

They are magnificent. Their website is out of date. Way out of date. 😢

[@roberttownson9459]

Bravo and thank you to BIS and their remarkable and invaluable dedication to Sibelius, over so many years! Even before the recordings on this collection came their many releases of Neeme Jarvi with the Gothenburg Symphony, which ignited my own lifelong love and passion for the music of Sibelius.

[@anttivirolainen8223]

To put it short: We need more visionaries like Robert von Bahr at Bis and Reijo Kiilunen at Ondine.

[@alanmcginn4796]

Lets not forget Klaus Hermann at naxos, an undisputable genius and visionary, and Cyrus Meher at Australian eloquence. He puts box sets together like no other. But I agree. BIS is a marvelous label.

[@williamwhittle216]

Truly one of the geat projects. The best one yet you have reviewed.

[@brafman1]

BIS recordings are a disproportionately large percentage of my collection. They run a randomly chosen half price album download every single day on their eclassical site, complete with a few sentences about the album from von Bahr. Great stuff.

[@alanmcginn4796]

I never knew this! Really good to know.

[@dsammut8831]

Except for songs and unaccompanied piano music (of which I've none) I thought I have everything by Sibelius, many of the BIS in the collection of this composer. Your Talk shines a big bright light for me. Many thanks, Dave!

[@MrYoumitube]

I used to have about 20 different recordings of Sibelius through BIS which were all fabulous, but to keep my choices shorter and yet always be satisfied I ended up just keeping the Segerstam box set on Ondine thanks in large part to you David.

[@cartologist]

Why choose? The true Sibelian has all three cycles by Paavo Berglund. I’m not one of them, though.

[@marc230]

​@@cartologist❤

[@eugenebraig413]

I scored a number of these original releases (like BIS' release of The Maiden in the Tower) but had carry those to the local used shop and obtain this amazing series when it came out (where those original releases came to be compiled). It took some effort because I started on the series late, and some weren't easily available via retailers by then. There is one more standalone disc released to follow. If you're a completist, you'll want the single CD titled The Unknown Sibelius. It has the orchestral fragments that may have been left over from the 8th symphony attempt (very brief), a much longer version of the famous piano impromptu, etc.

[@joelvalkila]

When my mother (who has no interest in classical) saw my record shelf: ”You have two letters missing! 😮” It is a genius idea to have the letters on the spine; you are gently forced to buy all the volumes in case you ever have any visitors

[@cartologist]

This is a great series. I love both to be confirmed in my excellent musical taste (this one) or challenged in it (film soundtracks made before you or I were born).

[@gobbel2000]

I mostly agree that whenever Sibelius revised one of his works it ended up becoming much better. This is absolutely true for the 5th symphony. But one exception to this is in my opinion the Spring Song. Both versions are on the first disc (Tone Poems) of the set. The variations differ quite a lot, the earlier version has a beautiful introduction that was stripped. I find that the music in it has much more flow and also a richer orchestration.

[@tonyxie7283]

Hi, Dave! Thank you for making all these wonderful videos! I was just thinking about a new series you could do when I was having lunch: The best recording by XXX (an artist or an orchestra): Toodles!

[@benrlego]

Excellent choice. For my money I think BIS has some absolutely splendid projects like this and the Bach collection by Suzuki. I also am partial to Brautigam’s various editions for BIS, though they are disjointed and not particularly part of a singular project. Truly a first-rate label in every way.

[@DavesClassicalGuide]

Not true. Brautigam did the complete Haydn, Mozart and Beethoven piano works--three major projects, for sure.

[@benrlego]

@@DavesClassicalGuide Yes, I understand that, but I meant that those series were not as a whole part of the same project, they are three individual smaller projects. Perhaps my saying so was dealing in semantics, nevertheless they are great achievements.

[@georgejohnson1498]

Absolute bullseye! ATB from Geoge

[@dsammut8831]

...Is there an especially crispy and blackened version of the 8th symphony?! Grin!

[@paul-francislaw9774]

I would watch your wonderful videos even if I wasn't obsessed with music. They always make my day. So ... now I have to find where I can buy the BIS Sibelius Complete Edition....

[@DavesClassicalGuide]

Try the BIS website.

[@wilsonfirth6269]

Thanks Dave. Lovely video about a great project. Who was it, though, that thought he was the worst composer in the world? I've replayed the segment a few times and still can't make it out.

[@DavesClassicalGuide]

Rene Liebowitz. Check out the video in the Sibelius playlist.

[@mgconlan]

When Mrs. Sibelius bitched about Mr. Sibelius writing pieces for the money instead of more grand symphonies, did Mr. Sibelius point out to her, "This is what's keeping us alive and in this beautiful home"? And does this collection include any of the surviving fragments of the never-finished Symphony No. 8, which was promised for 25 years (from Serge Koussevitzky's announcement of the world premiere in 1932 until Sibelius's death in 1957) and became the Loch Ness Monster of classical music?

[@joelvalkila]

BIS-2065, supplement album to the edition, ”The Unknown Sibelius”, has those fragments. The boxed set doesn’t

[@carlconnor5173]

I have to hand it to Robert Filmbar (spelling?) for doing this. I hope he’s rewarded for it. Maybe accomplishing it is reward enough for him.

[@DavesClassicalGuide]

von Bahr.

[@carlconnor5173]

@@DavesClassicalGuideThanks David.

[@shingosanada4396]

Sibelius' piano works have been under-rated not because they are of mediocre quality but because sutupid critics in the past regarded them as trash. If they were trash, Liszt' Transcendental Etudes would be also rubish. Most of Sibelius' piano works were brilliantly written and some of the late works are truly groundbreaking, which Liszt might have admired.

[@DavesClassicalGuide]

No, most are pretty mediocre, and Sibelius would have agreed, but there are some masterpieces in there as well. There's no need to overstate the case based on your personal affection for them.

[@hamidrezahabibi8111]

BIS is magnificent 💎🎶✨🫵 The only problem they have is their website which is quite old. I always ask myself why they don’t upgrade to a modern one. 😮

[@DavesClassicalGuide]

I'm sure if you're willing to pay for it, they would be happy to do it.