Thank you for this enjoyable blog, I'm sure it requires a lot of time and effort to write such detailed articles. So far, I have mostly agreed with your shortlists, and have also discovered some good recordings I hadn't known.
As for the Sibelius violin concerto, I couldn't help wondering about what seems to me like a notable omission: Pekka Kuusisto with Leif Segerstam conducting the Helsinki Philharmonic. I believe it's a really oustanding performance, one of the best of the many I've heard. It probably deserves at least a honourable mention. Could it be an oversight, or you just didn't like it?
This is why I need great readers like you. It was not so much an oversight of the recording as a clerical mistake on my part. In my notes I had the Kuusisto recording on the recommended list, so I imagine I was in a hurry to get it published and somehow skipped over it. I went back to my notes, and sure enough it should have been recommended. The boxed set that recording is on with Segerstam’s readings of the Sibelius symphonies is a terrific set.
I will correct my error and publish an update. The Sibelius post was one of the most challenging ones I’ve worked on. I appreciate your message!
Thank you John, wonderfull presentation, discussion and list of recordings, as usually.
I allow myself to suggest to add the first Lisa Batiashvili recording with Sakari Oramo and the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra on Sony. I find this version one of the best between modern version and preferable to the Barenboim’s one. Listen to the incipit of first mouvement: absolutely magnificent in my view. The qualities that you have rightly highighted of her later recording are even more recognisable here.
Thank you for this enjoyable blog, I'm sure it requires a lot of time and effort to write such detailed articles. So far, I have mostly agreed with your shortlists, and have also discovered some good recordings I hadn't known.
As for the Sibelius violin concerto, I couldn't help wondering about what seems to me like a notable omission: Pekka Kuusisto with Leif Segerstam conducting the Helsinki Philharmonic. I believe it's a really oustanding performance, one of the best of the many I've heard. It probably deserves at least a honourable mention. Could it be an oversight, or you just didn't like it?
Hi Igor,
This is why I need great readers like you. It was not so much an oversight of the recording as a clerical mistake on my part. In my notes I had the Kuusisto recording on the recommended list, so I imagine I was in a hurry to get it published and somehow skipped over it. I went back to my notes, and sure enough it should have been recommended. The boxed set that recording is on with Segerstam’s readings of the Sibelius symphonies is a terrific set.
I will correct my error and publish an update. The Sibelius post was one of the most challenging ones I’ve worked on. I appreciate your message!
John
Thank you John, wonderfull presentation, discussion and list of recordings, as usually.
I allow myself to suggest to add the first Lisa Batiashvili recording with Sakari Oramo and the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra on Sony. I find this version one of the best between modern version and preferable to the Barenboim’s one. Listen to the incipit of first mouvement: absolutely magnificent in my view. The qualities that you have rightly highighted of her later recording are even more recognisable here.
I’ll check it out! Thanks Luca!