Sibelius symhony no.2 and no.5

So many good recordings of both.

Vanska is a good choice for the 5th in both the original and final versions. Also, Rattle, either version although most prefer the earlier, and Karajan's classic with the BPO on DG.

Beecham's live recording of the 2nd with the BBCSO has a frisson missing from other more famous recordings and you can hear Tommy enjoying himself!

David Gutman's Gramophone Collection 'Romantic' choice for the Second - RPO conducted by Barbirolli - is certainly one of the best performances of the symphony I've heard. It has the effect of making the various bits of the Second I've long found irritating actually sound really endearing. Details in the July issue.

For the Fifth there are a handful of really fine modern recordings some of which have already been mentioned but two 'oldskool' ones are really worth hearing. Firstly the one coupled with that Second (Barbirolli on Testament), and secondly a BBC Legends recording with the BBC Northern Symphony Orchestra live in Sheffield, conducted by Jascha Horenstein. The coupling is Nielsen 3, both get performances of searing power. Fistfuls of wrong notes and dodgy tuning incidents galore, of course...

I think I belong to this heretic (but not necessarily erratic) group, which believes that the CD (or the superior SACD) is a product and, therefore, the better (the higher the production values) it is, the finer the playback performance sounds. Along these lines, I believe if someone wants to comprehend as many details as possible and enjoy the domineering sound of these complex works, as for the instrumentation and the form, my favourite versions are those of Ashkenazy in Exton, in SACD format.

By all means, if you belong to more traditional groups, which believe they can trace this "extra" beyond what's actually produced and heard, then, I may agree with most of the above for most of the versions mentioned (by the way, I admire the Abbado, Wand and somehow I like Harnoncourt too).

Parla

I gather BIS plans to publish Osma Vänskä and Minesota SO in Jan 2012. BIS-SACD-1986.

 Probably worth checking this out.

David

As a little boy, I once borrowed an LP with Barbirolli's Halle Orchestra recordings of Sibelius' 5 and 7 from the local library. It made a huge impact, and I was delighted that years later, I could buy the same LP for 1 buck when the library had a clearance sale.
So I might be a bit prejudiced, but even after listening to a dozen other Sibelius 5's Barbirolli remains THE conductor to go for in Sibelius, at least to me.
It's true that the orchestra isn't always in top form in the complete cycle, but at least the 5th and 7th sound glorious.

As for other recordings which I happen to own:
- Colin Davis' 2nd cycle with the LSO is excellent - sometimes eccentric, but always convincing.
- I've got a complete cycle from Saraste (Finnish RSO) which inludes the rarely performed Kullervo-symphony. Very idiomatic and worth going for since it's budget priced.
- Karajan is a solid choice, specially for the 5th, but not so much for the 2nd.
- Underrated: Abravanel's complete cycle with the Utah Symphony.
- Even more unjustly underrated: Sanderling's cycle with the Berlin SO. He's at his best in the dark minor key symphonies (best 4th I ever heard!), but happy pieces like the 2nd and 5th don't really benefit from his dramatic approach.
- Ashkenazy's cycle I find rather run of the mill.
- Bernstein's 2nd is something to be avoided like the plague. Horrible, kitchy and overblown performance.
- I've got a live performance of the 2nd with Jansons, CGO (2005), which came as a free download from Dutch radio. Excellent.

If you like a less polished, more raw and icy sound in Sibelius, the Sanderling set (see above) could be perfect for you.

It seems we have almost opposite tastes when it comes to Sibelius :)

The Ashkenazy cycle does sound nice, I agree. But sound isn't everything. I still love Sibelius' Tapiola in the Ashkenazy version, the first cd I bought with this work. But after listening to a lot of other performances, I hardly ever go back to Ashkenazy anymore.

Maybe it has something to do with me being far from an audiophile. I listen to music played on old, battered equipment, with cheap boxes, on a portable cdplayer in the bathroom, in the car... doesn't matter. If Hans Rosbaud's chilling mono-recording of Tapiola (DG) outshines Ashkenazy's performance-wise, I don't play Ashkenazy instead because it sounds better.

I quite like the 2nd Davis cycle because it's wildly experimental in nature and it offers big surprises even if you're very familiar with the scores. So I wouldn't recommend it to a first time buyer, but as a 2nd or 3rd set it's a great addition.

To me the problem with Bernstein is that while Davis' eccentrics always stem from the possibities offered by the score itself, Bernstein's deviations are strictly those of conductor who tends to put his own ego in front of the composer. Take the 2nd's 2nd movement, which should sound austere and tense, yet with reserved emotionality. And it does so with Barbirolli, Sanderling and Jansons. After all, Sibelius is no Tchaikowsky, even if he learned a lot from the Russian composer and the 1st and 2nd symphony clearly show his influence.

Bernstein on the other hand transforms it into a hyper-emo tearjerker, almost twice its normal length, in which every note is pulled and squeezed for maximum effect.

But you're right, there's no black or white in these discussions. That doesn't mean they can't be meaningful and fun :) And there's nothing wrong with opposite tastes or with these kind of discussions in general, as long as we remember to add some explanation why we love certain interpretations or hate others.