Enduring Legacy

Sibelius symphonies -
recommended by
HOWARD SMITH

'... an important enterprise ...'

Inesa Sinkevych - The Piano Music of Schubert

In the early nineteen thirties, on both sides of the Atlantic, a handful of conductors had begun to take note of Jean Sibelius; the Finns had previously had him to themselves to celebrate.

Among his most persuasive advocates in Britain were Sir Henry Wood, John Barbirolli and Malcolm Sargent while across the Atlantic he was programmed by American-based conductors -- Russian-born Serge Koussevitsky, London-born Leopold Stokowski and Budapest-born Eugene Ormandy.

Finland's composer/conductor Robert Kajanus was the first to make recordings of Sibelius's First, Second, Third and Fifth symphonies. They were recorded in the early 1930s with the London Symphony Orchestra...

The full article includes 3 music samples and is available to Music & Vision subscribers. For further information, please visit the signup page.

Sponsor this article and unlock the whole feature so that it's available to everyone here on this page.