By paul_terry
21-Aug-2011

A natural Sibelius conductor  

This recording of the Sibelius First Symphony was recorded during Ormandy's years in Minneapolis. He returned to the music of Sibelius many times, and left a large collection of recordings, right up to the end of the LP era. In the 1950s, Ormandy and the Philadelphia Orchestra visited Finland whilst on tour and made an excursion to visit Sibelius at his home near Helsinki, to pay their respects to the composer whose music they played so often.

This early version of the Symphony is very good, well-judged tempi, very Romantic in approach (the influence of Tchaikovsky is audible at times). The fill-up is very exciting, this time with the Philadelphia Orchestra in virtuoso mode.

I felt I should give this 4 out of 5 because the recordings are more than 70 years old, and so they sound very thin by our standards. However, if you don't mind "period" sound, this is a good bargain.
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