BaL 16.06.12 - Sibelius Symphony no. 5

[Stanley Stewart]

My top recommendation is for the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Celibidache.

[pastoralguy]

I've added the Gibson and Ormandy recordings to the list.

Thanks. Sibelius has always been a composer who appeals to the Scottish psyche!

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

On holiday in a cottage in the Lincolnshire Wolds this time last year they had the CBS CD of Bernstein's earlier NYPO recording, which I thought very fine and much better than the more mannered VPO DG version.

[amateur51]

Sibelius seems not to be really universally recognized as a great composer:

Where are the recordings stemming from?
Scandinavia (incl. Denmark), Britain, USA, 2 Russian, 3 German (2 Karajan), 2 VPO, 1 Swiss, 1 NZ and 1 Ozzie.
No Concertgebouw, no other German-speaking orchestras, only one French speaking (the Swiss), further no club med or Eastern European orchestras whatsoever.

Conductors: Scandinavian, Baltic, Russian, British, American and 1 Austrian. That's it.

Not disputing your point Roehre but ...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hGP6IlXS_Ms

Paavo Berglund, conductor
Japan Philharmonic Orchestra
10 December 1971

[Beef Oven]

On holiday in a cottage in the Lincolnshire Wolds this time last year they had the CBS CD of Bernstein's earlier NYPO recording, which I thought very fine and much better than the more mannered VPO DG version.

Currently playing the very mannered VPO!

[HighlandDougie]

Thanks. Sibelius has always been a composer who appeals to the Scottish psyche!

Eh, aye, sez who Jimmy? That'll be the fondness for a wee sherry (or six) that joins Finland and God's great country. I started off being less than impressed by Osmo's Minnesota version but I've grown to love it. And who on earth could say that Sibelius is not a great composer? Even if the only work he ever wrote was, say, Tapiola he is up there in Valhalla with Scarlatti, Rameau, Schubert, Beethoven, Debussy etc etc...

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

Currently playing the very mannered VPO!

Haven't heard these Sibelius performances since they first came out, MrO: what do you think of it? Should I give them another go?

[Beef Oven]

Haven't heard these Sibelius performances since they first came out, MrO: what do you think of it? Should I give them another go?

Definitely give 'em another whirl, but other posters are right, he was better with the NYPO.

[jayne lee wilson]

Yes, the new Vanska Minneapolis 5th is glorious listening - but perhaps a bit too much of a Rolls-Royce ride? Deeply churlish, to listen is to be grateful...

More tension, drama and sheer individuality with Barbirolli and the Halle (Kingsway, Boyling, Kinloch-Anderson, vintage 1966 - and the finale really knocks you for six...) or the startling Rozhdestvensky with the Moscow Radio SO in 1973 (a true pet favourite). Love Berglund's Bournemouth SO version too, his later accounts perhaps became a little too objective or "plain-spoken".
Always fond of Bernstein's NYPO cycle - but for me the outstanding reading there is the swift, stunningly dramatic No.1.

To choose one seems impossible...

[PJPJ]

T'other Gibson recording with the LSO

http://www.highdeftapetransfers.com/symphonies-n-z-c163.php

[verismissimo]

What a fine work this is. And so many outstanding performances and recordings.

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

Interesting programme too.

[cloughie]

T'other Gibson recording with the LSO

http://www.highdeftapetransfers.com/...s-n-z-c163.php

Was also available on Decca Legends for a while. I had this years back on a Decca World of... LP - of excellent recording quality, originally RCA made by Decca, the critics at the time not ultra-keen on the performance, but it has always sounded fine to me - but what do I know?

Missed the end of the review - the winner was?

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

Missed the end of the review - the winner was?

Davis/LSO "Live"

(don't think the RCA version was mentioned and the Phillips BSO was dismissed with a "Impressive or Laboured?" comment about the transition between the first two movements. "Impressively laboured", I thought - the tension and struggle laid bare so that the release of the climax was all the more powerful. Doesn't do shading, our Stevie!)

[vinteuil]

And who on earth could say that Sibelius is not a great composer? Even if the only work he ever wrote was, say, Tapiola he is up there in Valhalla with Scarlatti, Rameau, Schubert, Beethoven, Debussy etc etc...

... that's my kind of Valhalla!

A shame that he was only able to illustrate a very few of the marvellous recordings that are out there.
I shd have liked to have heard his views on the Berglund/Bournemouth, and particularly on the Celibidache/RAI [1970] and on the Celibidache/Swedish Radio [1971], one of my faves (along with Vänskä/Lahti)...

But I found it a useful and instructive BAL