As is often the case, the sound can be slightly congested at its loudest, so A++ is our grade.Ī+ to A++, much like side two, big and rich, with Tubey Magical lower strings that are the hallmark of the best Golden Age recordings. The strings are especially rich and textured in the best Living Stereo / Decca tradition. It’s transparent, BIG, and lush for the most part. The Second Symphony has retained an extraordinary popularity for its individualistic tonal language, dark wind coloring, muted string writing, simple folk-like themes, and distinctly “national” flavor that are all Sibelian to the core.Ī++, Super Hot and as good as any side we played. The First Symphony which appeared in 1899, was acclaimed as a worthy addition to the long line of European “nationalist” works in terms of music, Sibelius had done for Finland what Dvorak had done for Czechoslovakia and Borodin for Russia… Such a work is the Second Symphony of Sibelius. If you’re after the best sound, it’s the rare record that will have it, which makes clearing shelf space a lot easier than you might think.Įvery now and then in the history of music there appears a work which, without straining the existing idiom, manages to infuse new life into one of the standard musical forms. Most classical records display an irredeemable mediocrity right from the start it doesn’t take a pair of golden ears to hear it.

If you have too many classical records taking up too much space and need to winnow them down to a manageable size, pick a composer and play a dozen or two of his works. Most never made it to the half-minute mark. We started by pulling out every performance on every label we had in our backroom and playing them one after another. With a Super Hot side two and a nearly as good side one, this 1959 Shaded Dog won our recent shootout for the work. We have not played either of them in quite a while, so take this recommendation for what it is, an old memory that may be faulty. The Mackerras reissued on London or RCA Victrola may be good too. We currently prefer the performance by Barbarolli on Readers Digest. Our system was very different in 2013, and, of course, the copies of the record we have now are not the same as the ones we played all those years ago. More RCA Shaded Dogs with Questionable Sound Qualityīack in 2013 we liked the performance and the sound of this recording on Living Stereo, but recently when we played a copy or two it did not impress us much. Reviews and Commentaries for the Music of Jean Sibelius More of the Music of Jean Sibelius (1865-1957)

Sibelius symphony 2