Roger Hecht wrote:

>I take it you found this in one of the used CD stores.  If it was in a new
>one, let me know, and I could see if they have another one (though I'd
>assume you'd have done this).  I live in Boston, obviously.

It was new-- at HMV in Cambridge, and it was the only copy.  I suppose if
HMV is its own distribution entity, they might have some in some warehouse
somewhere unlike the other distributors.  Do they have their own
distributor?

>For what it's worth, Barbirolli recorded both these symphonies with Halle
>commercially.  Obviously, they're not the same performances--at least I'd
>assume they're not--but maybe you'd like them as well.  Who knows?

I have two Vanguard/Everyman LP's of Barbirolli/Halle doing Sibelius 1
and 5, but they don't blow me away in anything like the same manner.  I'd
swap the pair of them in a second for the live CD.  I think these may have
been 1950's recordings though, and that he may have recorded another Halle
Sibelius cycle towards the end of his life...? This may be the one ARG
referred to in such hushed tones of awe in their last Sibelius overview.
"Barbirolli may have been the greatest Sibelius interpreter of all" was
the quote as I remember it.  Apparently only ever released on CD in Japan.

Jon Lewis
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