Lisa Hirsch's Classical Music Blog. The iron tongue of midnight hath told twelve. Lovers, to bed; 'tis almost fairy time.
Berce mollement sur ton sein sublime
Ô puissante mer, l’enfant de Dindyme!
Tuesday, January 31, 2012
Paavo Berglund
The Finnish conductor Paavo Berglund died last week at 82; Allan Kozinn has a most intriguing obit in the Times. Which of his Sibelius sets should I buy?
Definitely go with the EMI/Helsinki set. Sharply etched, cool performances, alid out with an unimpeachable sense of large-scale shape. Definitely beats the later LPO cycle. I think the 8-CD box is OP, but the symphonies are still around on a couple of low-priced twofers.
BTW, I heard Berglund with the Boston Symphony twice. One on program he led the Britten arrangement of the the 3rd mvmt of Mahler 3, the Britten Violin Concerto, and Sibelius 6 & 7. It was a deeply memorable experience, the best live Sibelius I've ever heard.
2 comments:
Lisa:
Definitely go with the EMI/Helsinki set. Sharply etched, cool performances, alid out with an unimpeachable sense of large-scale shape. Definitely beats the later LPO cycle. I think the 8-CD box is OP, but the symphonies are still around on a couple of low-priced twofers.
BTW, I heard Berglund with the Boston Symphony twice. One on program he led the Britten arrangement of the the 3rd mvmt of Mahler 3, the Britten Violin Concerto, and Sibelius 6 & 7. It was a deeply memorable experience, the best live Sibelius I've ever heard.
He'll be missed.
David Weininger
Thank you, David! I will look around for those.
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