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In Reply to: RE: Who does the best Sibelius? posted by Jack D II on January 12, 2015 at 02:38:25
He was a leftie! No, I don't mean on the political spectrum (although, who knows, maybe he was!). I mean he was left handed and conducted that way! Pace Andy below, I find Berglund's recordings of the Sibelius symphonies to be tremendous: talk about someone with a very DETAILED knowledge of the score (including the mistakes which have crept in to various printings), that would be Paavo for sure! He recorded three separate cycles over the years: one each with the Bournemouth Symphony, the Helsinki Philharmonic, and the Chamber Orchestra of Europe. I think the earliest of these (the one with the Bournemouth Symphony) is the best: it has that "golden age" EMI sound quality - so satisfying and natural. The Helsinki recordings sound a bit more congested (except for one - the Seventh? can't remember right now - which was recorded in London, rather than Helsinki). And the COE recordings are a special case, which trade the tonal depth of a large string body (absolutely essential to the Sibelius sound world IMHO) for additional clarity of texture - very well recorded BTW, as was pointed out in Stereophile (I think by JM - John, is that right?).I do like the Vänskä/Lahti recordings too and agree with the good notices from Ivan303 and Bob Neill below. I also find the Karajan/BPO recordings very attractive - either on DG or EMI (now Warner).
When you start getting away from complete sets, there are some truly outstanding recordings of the individual symphonies, such as the Mravinsky Seventh (one of the greatest recordings of anything IMHO), or the extremely powerful Levine/BPO recordings (which seem to be under the radar for many listeners) of the Fourth and Fifth.
EDIT: here's an embedded YT video showing Paavo's left-handed technique:
Edits: 01/12/15Follow Ups:
The late lamented Sam Tellig gave one of them (5 & 7 I think) an R2D4 a few years back.
john
PS: I urged Jerry Bruck to buy that CD and after he listened a bit he said "Damn that Tony Faulkner" I think obviously, that Faulkner made so few strings sound so rich.
Lamented??
By whom?
More like Armour All Tellig. Crappy Musical Fidelity buffer stage Tellig. Migrane-inducing Audio Technical Headphones Tellig. "33 rpm slows the music down" Tellig. If musical instruments resonate - so should loudspeakers Tellig. Fake pen name and imaginary friends Tellig. And on and on and on and on and on...
The Confraternity of Saint Thomas!!!
Keep up the good work, young man!
jm
BTW, I was never a fan of Sam Tellig either! ;-)
Or, bad days at work.
That's OK. I've got it out of my system, and returninng to civility.
Has Sam (Tom) passed on?
n
He emailed me today.
jm
Thanks all.
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