VA - Jean Sibelius: Historical Recordings and Rarities 1928-1948 (2015)

Sibelius' personal choice for the recordings of symphonies No.s 1 and 2, made in London in 1930 with the Orchestra of the Royal Philharmonic Society, and which were followed by the recordings of No.s 3 and 5 in 1932. Symphony No 4 is conducted by Sir Thomas Beecham (with the London Philharmonic Orchestra in 1937), while Symphony No 7 is conducted by Serge Koussevitzky (a live recording with the BBC Symphony in London 1933). After Kajanus died in 1933, Sibelius said: "Of the men who play my music today, and whose performances I have heard, I prefer Beecham and Koussevitzky. Of Koussevitzky I have heard only the Seventh Symphony records published by the Sibelius Society, but with those I am entirely delighted. Beecham's performances have come to me by wireless [radio], and they are superb. He is a remarkable man. It gives me the deepest pleasure and satisfaction to see how great an interest he takes in my music and to know that it is he who is playing so much of music to the British public." Both Beecham and Koussevitzky were powerful advocates of the composer's music - Beecham in the UK and on his international tours, Koussevitzky in the US as chief conductor of the Boston Symphony Orchestra, a post he held for 25 years. Symphony No 6 is conducted by Georg Schneevoigt - a Finn and a close friend of Sibelius, who also leads the performance of the tone poem Luonnotar, which features the soprano Helmi Liukkonen; drawing like the majority of Sibelius' tone poems on the Finnish national epic, the Kalevala, it is a stunning piece that describes the creation of the world. In addition to these works, this box offers much more of the 'essential Sibelius': the Violin Concerto, to which Jascha Heifetz (conducted by Beecham) brings his characteristic fusion of fire and ice; eight more of the tone poems, including Finlandia, which famously gave expression to Finland's defiance of Russian domination at the time of it's composition (1899); movements from the Karelia Suite; Valse Triste and extracts from his music for Maeterlinck's play Pelléas et Mélisande. Complementing these are a number of lesser-known works, such as the incidental music to Hjalmar Procopé's play Belshazzar's Feast, the string quartet "Voces intimae" and several small-scale pieces for piano, violin, cello and voice. Other performers featured in the box include: the Budapest String Quartet, the soprano Auliki Rautavaara, the violinist Emil Telmányi, the pianists Eileen Joyce and Gerald Moore and the Orchestra of the Royal Philharmonic Society, the London Symphony Orchestra, London Philharmonic Orchestra, BBC Symphony Orchestra, Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra, Finnish Radio Orchestra and Stockholm Opera House Orchestra. The legendary producer Walter Legge was a driving force behind many of the most celebrated recordings in this box, and he was personally in charge of the recording sessions with Sir Thomas Beecham. His exacting standards have been reflected in the new or recent digital remasterings - from best sources than ever at Abbey Road Studio - of all these recordings.