The Minnesota Orchestra will not record Sibelius symphonies and a Beethoven piano concerto next month as planned. The Sweden-based BIS label was scheduled to ship recording equipment to Minneapolis this week for sessions that were to start Sept. 16.
The parties agreed that without a musicians' contract, it didn't make sense to send the equipment.
"We know there is a week that works next spring," said Gwen Pappas, the orchestra's spokeswoman. She acknowledged that no dates have yet been confirmed.
(Update added Aug.20:) "The Sibelius Symphonies project is an extremely important one to both BIS and the Minnesota Orchestra, and we look forward to rescheduling these sessions as soon as a contract resolution is in place," BIS executive Rob Suff said in a statement on Tuesday:
The third and sixth Sibelius symphonies were to be recorded in the session, a continuation of a CD cycle devoted to all seven of the Finnish composer's symphonies.
The 2012 release by the orchestra of the second and fifth Sibelius symphonies was nominated for a Grammy award. Symphonies 1 and 4 were released on a BIS CD this year, reviewed here.
Music Director Osmo Vänskä said in a letter last April that it was "extremely important to make the [Sibelius] recordings in September as planned."
Yevgeny Sudbin is expected to record the Beethoven Piano Concerto No. 2, part of a series of concertos with the pianist.
