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!
Opinions expressed on this blog are mine and not my employer's.
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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