Bob Draper wrote:

>In my view Askenazy's is the best Sibelius complete set (Decca).Though I
>haven't heard Rattle.  At mid price (in UK) it's certainly worth getting.

I'm pretty much with you there.  If I had to have only one Sibelius cycle
it would be a big tussle between Ashkenazy and Vanska.  This may sound
dumb, but I hear many little expressive touches in Ash's versions that seem
very "pianistically informed" to me and make other versions I've heard seem
too mechanical.  His 7th is my favorite version and his 5th and 3rd would
be if not for some occasional but bothersome lame brass intonation in the
finales of both.  Vanska to me is just the opposite-- he accentuates the
impassive until I feel like I'm witnessing natural, atmospheric or
geological events rather than human ones.  All others I've heard so far
(except Kajanus and Beecham who are in a class by themselves) seem blandly
in between Ash and Vanska.  But I certainly haven't heard everyone--
Collins is way at the top of my next-to-get list (his set is still
available in the UK as a 4cd box which Crotchet.co.uk sells for about $45
US plus shipping).  For a long time after getting the Sibelius I wanted to
check out some of Ash's other conductorial outings, but i've noticed they
seem to have a bad rep.

Later Don Satz said of Berglund's new chamber orchestra Sibelius cycle:

>I have the Finlandia set and like it very much.  These are not heavy
>peformances and might seem underpowered to some folks.  I would have liked
>a more "icy" interpretation, but that's my only regret about the set.

I thought about these for the last year or so as they sat unmolested in my
local (lame) Media Play outlet.  Reviews have been SO mixed on them.  Half
the mags say they're routine-sounding and for audiophiles only, the other
half say it's a revelation to hear every instrumental line so clearly.  I
actually envisioned them sounding MORE icy with the smaller instrumental
array, which would be a plus...  but the Real Audio bits sounded just
average...  finally two weeks ago I came into an unexpected extra $60 and
decided the hell with it, I'll roll the dice and get 'em.  Got to Media
Play and the only employee who gave even the slightest damn about CM told
me they'd returned the discs to the distributor the day before.  AARGH!!
Of course I "punished" the store by spending my $60 there on other stuff I
didn't want as much...  anyway I'd love to hear any explicit commentary on
this set.  My money's much better spent on the Collins...  right?

Jon Lewis
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