Francescatti, Walter, Columbia Symphony Orchestra, Oistrakh, Ormandy, Philadelphia Orchestra - Beethoven & Sibelius: Violin Concertos (1994)

The Sibelius Violin Concerto was a David Oistrakh specialty. He brought to it a personal warmth and poetry, and he made the most of what critics call Sibelius's "Russian melancholy," which is the term applied to Russian music when it sounds most Finnish. But seriously, the great Finnish composer was a strong admirer of Tchaikovsky, whose Violin Concerto was another Oistrakh specialty. Eugene Ormandy's Sibelius credentials were similarly well established at the time that this great recording was made. At a budget price, with a terrific Beethoven Violin Concerto tossed in, you'd have to be nuts not to want to hear it. --David Hurwitz