The Snowshoed Sibelius

[Mirror Image]

I quote myself just to reveal how far off the mark I can be - on this occasion, I can perhaps blame it on the poorer equipment I had at the time..or something...or just myself basically... ...I have got my paws on Bernstein's Sibelius with the NYPO, and I now cannot understand what the tapiolas I was on about in the above post. 
A man can change his mind.
I cannot remember Bernstein's Sibelius sounding this good and I am wondering about my misplaced hostility towards it because of a listening years ago.  I apologise to whomsoever I may have offended with such nonsense.  I find this to be eminent Sibelius, but for some reason which  baffles me, I did not find this when I had this set in the past.
It's GREAT.

Well, I'm certainly glad you've come around to this set, John. It's one of my favorite Sibelius cycles for the reason that it goes against what many would say is too hot-headed and emotionally intense for Sibelius. For me, this fire and ice approach to Sibelius works incredibly well. This was the Sibelius set that made me love this composer's music. It was one of those "lightbulb" moments. Everything made much more sense with Lenny at the helm. Bernstein had a special affinity for Nordic composers and his Nielsen recordings are just as inspired as his Sibelius. Hope you enjoy this set for many more years to come.

[Karl Henning]

There's hope: John's (MI) ears may yet come around to the Blomstedt/SFSO set : )

[Mirror Image]

There's hope: John's (MI) ears may yet come around to the Blomstedt/SFSO set : )

You never know, Karl. I think I'll have a listen to it later on in the week. Refresh my memory of it.

[Karl Henning]

Well, John, and the beauty of it is, there's no rush. Blomstedt will always be there.

[Mirror Image]

Well, John, and the beauty of it is, there's no rush. Blomstedt will always be there.

This is true. I do want to revisit the cycle at some point though. I would like to revisit all three of Davis' cycles as well just to see if my opinion has changed at all.

[Brian]

Do you ever have one of those days where you wake up and think, "I should listen to all of Alexander Gibson's Sibelius recordings today"? I had one yesterday, but Naxos Music Library was down. I had another one today. Hopefully its servers can handle my demands!

[jlaurson]

Do you ever have one of those days where you wake up and think, "I should listen to all of Alexander Gibson's Sibelius recordings today"? I had one yesterday, but Naxos Music Library was down. I had another one today. Hopefully its servers can handle my demands!

Scottish National or Royal Philharmonic? Or really ALL?

[Brian]

Scottish National or Royal Philharmonic? Or really ALL?

I'm starting with the RPO Karelia Suite, Swan of Tuonela, and Finlandia in a hazy attempt to go in chronolog-ish order. I haven't yet decided what to do for the symphonies he recorded with both orchestras (including #1); thoughts?

[DavidRoss]

I like the idea of a Sibelius-fest today at Casa de Dave!

Gibson would not be my choice, however.  Who would?  Hmmmm....

I know! Let's start with the oldest (earliest recorded) complete cycle I own.

Not this:

Nor this:

Nor even this:

But this!

(Recordings date from 1960 to 1967)

[DavidRoss]

Oh, my. Just heard Lenny's NYPO Sibelius 1 for the first time in ... oh ... probably 2 or 3 years.

Although this set has ranked high in my estimation ever since I first heard it, I still forget just how good it is, how great the NYPO was, and how good recording technology was back in the '60s.

This is just splendid. Even though Lenny's emotionally charged, fast and furious, full-tilt 1st hardly embodies my preferred performance approach, it's just so damned good and committed and well-played that I love it!

[Scarpia]

Oh, my. Just heard Lenny's NYPO Sibelius 1 for the first time in ... oh ... probably 2 or 3 years.

Although this set has ranked high in my estimation ever since I first heard it, I still forget just how good it is, how great the NYPO was, and how good recording technology was back in the '60s.

This is just splendid. Even though Lenny's emotionally charged, fast and furious, full-tilt 1st hardly embodies my preferred performance approach, it's just so damned good and committed and well-played that I love it!

And I see Amazon has a new copy of the set for the reasonable price of $552.94.  I'd better snap it up before someone here spots it.

[mahler10th]

Oh, my. Just heard Lenny's NYPO Sibelius 1 for the first time in ... oh ... probably 2 or 3 years.

Although this set has ranked high in my estimation ever since I first heard it, I still forget just how good it is, how great the NYPO was, and how good recording technology was back in the '60s.

This is just splendid. Even though Lenny's emotionally charged, fast and furious, full-tilt 1st hardly embodies my preferred performance approach, it's just so damned good and committed and well-played that I love it!

I am glad I came round to it in a BIG way recently.

Lenny's emotionally charged, fast and furious, full-tilt 1st hardly embodies my preferred performance approach...

Yes, this is most definitely something we do not want to hear in Sibelius at all...but Lenny has a way with it, and makes big audio for such an old recording, some of them older than my physical being sounding like they were recorded next month. 
Davis and Ashkenazy, my two top Sibelians, completely different from Lenny as they are to each other - they would never get away with playing it like Lenny does, and Lenny is the only conductor who probably has got away with it.

[DavidRoss]

And I see Amazon has a new copy of the set for the reasonable price of $552.94.  I'd better snap it up before someone here spots it.

Just goes to show how underappreciated Sibelius still is. New Mahler cycles appear almost every month, it seems, and both DGG & Sony keep reissuing Bernstein's Mahler cycles in new packaging/remasterings. Sony's issued 3 different sets of the NYPO cycle in the past 11 years.  Yet distribution of the "Columbia Legends" Sibelius cycle pictured above was spotty back in 2003 and it went OOP PDQ.

For them to reissue it wouldn't even require remastering, as this set was just repackaged from the "Royal Edition" boxes that were remastered in good 20-bit sound back in the '90s after the industry learned to do away with that "digitalis" glare that made early CDs so awful.

[mahler10th]

Just goes to show how underappreciated Sibelius still is. New Mahler cycles appear almost every month, it seems, and both DGG & Sony keep reissuing Bernstein's Mahler cycles in new packaging/remasterings. Sony's issued 3 different sets of the NYPO cycle in the past 11 years.  Yet distribution of the "Columbia Legends" Sibelius cycle pictured above was spotty back in 2003 and it went OOP PDQ.

They did a whole series of Columbia Legends with that kind of cover.  I think the package design is bloody dreadful, and may have weighted bad sales.

[DavidRoss]

They did a whole series of Columbia Legends with that kind of cover.  I think the package design is bloody dreadful, and may have weighted bad sales.

Yeah. All those pictures of Lenny probably turned most folks off. If they want to boost sales, they need to go with a cover photo like this:

[Sadko]

Yeah. All those pictures of Lenny probably turned most folks off. If they want to boost sales, they need to go with a cover photo like this:

I'm not sure whether Lenny dressed like this would sell so well.

[DavidRoss]

I'm not sure whether Lenny dressed like this would sell so well.

These days you never know....

[Karl Henning]

"I feel pretty ... oh so pretty ...."

[Sadko]

"I feel pretty ... oh so pretty ...."

[Scarpia]

Yeah. All those pictures of Lenny probably turned most folks off. If they want to boost sales, they need to go with a cover photo like this:

Or a more culturally appropriate equivalent