Steve Schwartz enthused:

>I LOVE Kullervo.  It may be my favorite Sibelius.

I think it is mine, although there's always Tapiola.  I've tried several
CD versions of Kullervo but none has quite the fire and excitement of Paavo
Berglund's pioneering version from the early 70s, which has long been on
my CD reissue want list.  Even Berglund's second version, on EMI Matrix,
I didn't like as much.  Thus I was delighted to find the original in a
release list as part of an EMI twofer (CZS5 74200-2) which includes at
least Ida Haendel's version of the Violin Concerto.

Incidentally, a friend recently discovered the item at the top of his
reissue want list:  Constantin Silvestri's 1956 version of the New World
with the French National Radio, which is a very fiery performance.  It's
on Japanese EMI.  I know I could spend ages looking for myself, but does
anyone know of an English language site which deals in Japanese releases?
I occasionally read about an interesting release and wonder what other
treasures might be available in Tokyo, which companies have a Japanese
label, and so on.

Richard Pennycuick
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