Karajan was not the only German champion of Sibelius in the post-war years, though he was the most influential. Hans Rosbaud also broke a lance for him at a time when his music was cold-shouldered in Germany. Not long before his death in 1962 Rosbaud made guest appearances with the BBC Symphony Orchestra and insisted on including the Fourth Symphony in his programmes. At this time he was very much identified with contemporary music. Not only had he conducted the premiere of Schoenberg’s Moses und Aron but also the Second Piano Concerto of Bartok with the composer as soloist, and after the war he was active in espousing the cause of Boulez and Stockhausen. However, this CD collects the Sibelius recordings Rosbaud made with the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra during the 1950s, none of which has ever been reissued since.
Deryck Cooke spoke of Rosbaud’s Tapiola with enthusiasm: “Although he lacks Karajan’s ultra-sensitivity to beauty of sound, he has all his drama and precision, and does not make the fatal error of jamming on the brakes after the final climax; moreover the intensity of the final pages is something to marvel at”. In its evocation of the terrors of the forest it has few rivals and can stand alongside the great Tapiolas of Koussevitzky, Beecham, Karajan and Kajanus. Every time I hear this performance I succumb completely to its spell. Cooke noted that “the recording, warm and round, is one of DG’s ‘far-off’ type, depriving the orchestral sound of immediate impact”, though I have to say DG pressings of the late 1950s were not cut at a high level. I have few quarrels with the sound of this reissue, which has both presence and clarity, though some allowances have to be made for it.
The more popular Sibelius pieces also come off very well and, pace Deryck Cooke, I thought The Swan of Tuonela had no want of atmosphere or subtlety, though it is perhaps a trifle fast. In any event, Rosbaud’s Tapiola makes this issue a must for all Sibelians, and DG deserve our thanks for making it available again.'