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Jerry Dubins, who must be Fanfare's most prolific writer, once gave a list of his top Sibelius symphony recordings. Even though I don't always agree with Dubins, I respect his taste so I investigated a few of them. His somewhat obscure choice for the 2nd Symphony was the Dorati/Stockholm Philharmonic on RCA Victrola, apparently never issued on CD.
I was able to score a sealed copy of this which I cleaned yesterday and played today. First, I think it is indeed an excellent reading - more "romantic" than I prefer, but with good tempos - e.g. not overly slow like the Barbirolli reading issued on Chesky. Dorati gets good orchestral execution from the Stockholm Phil, and the sound is surprisingly good.
I say surprisingly good since the vinyl is paper-thin - I have a number of the Victrola issues, and this has to be as thin as I've seen. I had a hard time cleaning it on the Clearaudio Double Matrix Pro, which generally doesn't like thinner records. And, the vinyl is kind of crappy - not quiet at all.
Too bad, because I like this reading a lot better than say, the Monteux (famous, but I don't think he was a committed Sibelian) or even the Karajan Philharmonia recording. (Why didn't HvK, who was a committed Sibelian, record the 2nd for DG?)
Dubins is one of those guys who prefers the Sibelius violin concerto to all of his other works, but is less passionate about the symphonies. It is interesting to see this kind of bifurcation - the violin concerto is atypical of Sibelius' work - and I personally find way more in the symphonies, but I know of others who feel the way Dubins does. My only LP of the violin concerto with with Oistrakh and coupled with the 3rd symphony conducted by Kletski.
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Topic - A Sunday Spin - Dorati conducts Sibelius 2 - TGR 13:16:58 11/29/15 (25)
- Sibelius 2 - gd 11:09:42 11/30/15 (6)
- I like the Szell until the very end: too stiff and misses the ecstatic stuff. - jdaniel@jps.net 18:59:28 11/30/15 (2)
- Kind of like vegetables - TGR 15:35:17 12/01/15 (1)
- So true! (I just wish recent vinyl pressings weren't so "all dente" right out of the box. nt - jdaniel@jps.net 18:45:56 12/01/15 (0)
- RE: Sibelius 2 - TGR 15:14:09 11/30/15 (2)
- That's true - gd 15:50:39 11/30/15 (1)
- Szell/Japan 2 - TGR 16:45:23 11/30/15 (0)
- T2- "It'll All Workout in Boomland" - peteSF 20:25:44 11/29/15 (0)
- Mahler 1.... - kuma 20:12:03 11/29/15 (6)
- Classic performances nt - jdaniel@jps.net 21:34:57 11/29/15 (5)
- Indeed. Which Titan is your favourite? (nt) - kuma 21:37:44 11/29/15 (4)
- Tough call, Kubelik's Audite 1st is infinitely more interesting and better recorded, but... - jdaniel@jps.net 18:54:26 11/30/15 (3)
- I was wondering about Kubelik's later Audite release.... - kuma 23:10:16 11/30/15 (2)
- Funny story.... - jdaniel@jps.net 07:22:43 12/01/15 (1)
- That's why I have a $10 limit for ebay LPs. ;-) nt - rbolaw 16:27:01 12/02/15 (0)
- Tom Scott, Ramsey Lewis, & a Little J. Strauss - jllaudio 19:35:19 11/29/15 (0)
- Art Pepper - Intensity - JeffH 18:13:17 11/29/15 (0)
- Best Of Cream - 1973shovel 15:20:05 11/29/15 (0)
- An afternoon with Al . . . Stewart, that is. - Opus 33 1/3 14:07:27 11/29/15 (0)
- RE: A Sunday Spin - Dorati conducts Sibelius 2 - bruckner9 13:34:26 11/29/15 (5)
- Maybe - TGR 13:49:36 11/29/15 (4)
- will do... - bruckner9 13:52:33 11/29/15 (3)
- Mine is an... - bruckner9 15:36:53 11/29/15 (2)
- Let's trade - TGR 15:47:15 11/29/15 (1)
- Who knows.... - bruckner9 16:55:55 11/29/15 (0)