Jon Lewis:

>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...?

I have Nos 5 and 7 on one LP, and 1 with some Pelleas and Melisande
excerpts, both of which I bought in 1970 through a record club which issued
them on its own label and unfortunately, there's no publication date.
I*think* Barbirolli did a complete cycle and it was probably for EMI, or
one of the labels in its stable at the time, likely HMV.  I haven't heard
them for a long time, but I certainly recall this as the first of a number
of versions I'd heard of the 5th in which the chords at the end made sense.
Another Sibelius LP I would love to have on CD contains, among other
things, his version of some excerpts from the Scenes Historiques, which
have a nobility and drama that I haven't heard in more recent versions.

Richard Pennycuick
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