Jean Sibelius Recordings

Love your descriptions of the symphonies. My favorites are the 3d, 4th, 5th, and 6th. The 7th not so much. More abstract - a one off I think. #1 and # 2 are a great place to start with Sibelius but not to end up (That #2 never seams to end sometimes. I have the Makela set - have listened to it about 3 times and so far I'm not hearing anything unique or revelatory. Just OK. I don't have the Rouvali (yet). Most everything else though. No one ever mentions Jarvi, but his Sibelius on BIS ain't that bad. Try his third. FWIW I really don't care for overbroad performances, i.e. slow, even when done by a Finn. I have most of Vanska's recordings - I find them, generally, very reliable and BIS's recordings very good. I think I prefer the earlier BIS recordings. Re Berglund's COE performances, they remind me of what Harnoncourt did with Beethoven for those who tired of overbroad, over scored, stuff that had become a standard. Ditto for Schubert's 8 and 9 by Mackerras on Virgin.Guess I just like the COE. :-)

Yeah, the first two symphonies are great works, but for me they became over familiar as I played them to death and didn't move on with Sibelius for a couple of decades.  The First is an outstanding First Symphony filled with great music.  The Colin Davis BSO recording is superb with deep brooding strings.  As I've said before the debts to Tchaikovsky are obvious and Sibelius realy finds his own voice in the 3rd.  The Second was revolutionary for it's time, especially the First Movement which dispenses with an introduction and transition material between the themes.  And in the last movement that you say goes on forever, we hear Sibelius absorbing the Bruckner influence, of hammering away repetitively and then changing key signatures at the climactic moment, producing that "sunrise" (others refer to it as orgasmic) sensation.  

LOL. Re Bruckner's influence - Much as I like parts of #8, I usually only listen to #9 and, sometimes #7. Sometimes I think I'd like to hear Bruckner done by the COE. :-)

@mahler123 

Although I’ve listened to classical music on our local station KUSC I’ve never really taken the time to become that knowledgeable in the genre- this is completely new to me! 
After reading this thread I was intrigued so I decided to listen tonight. Is this the release you were referring to?

Actually, no. The above is a recording of an early Sibelius work, one that he withdrew after publishing. It’s kind of like The Beatles with Tony Sheridan album. Kullervo has its fans but I’m not among them. If you are new to Sibelius I recommend exploring the following.

Tone Poems (Basically works for Orchestra that aren’t Symphonies or Concertos): Finlandia, Tapiola,The Swan of Tuonela, En Saga

Symphonies 1-7. Number 5 might be the most immediately accessible

Violin Concerto

@designsfx if you have a streaming service you can easily explore many recordings of all of the above

The conductor in the recording you referenced is named Osmo Vanska.  He irecords for the label BIS.  BIS hired him to record every note the Composer ever wrote for Orchestra, back in the nineties, with a relatively small Orchestra from the city of Lahti.  He subsequently became the Conductor of the Minnesota Orchestra, and BIS is re recording much of the Sibelius this time in SACD.

  As you can tell from the other posts in the thread there are many other Conductors that have recorded Sibelius.  Another excellent place to start would be Herbert von Karajan and the Berlin Philharmonic in the four tone poems that I listed above 

if you need more help don’t be afraid to ask.