As much as I enjoyed Sanderling's Sibelius yesterday, thus far Barbirolli is making me enjoy this music anymore - these recordings were always criticized for sound in their LP incarnations, but this 2000 remastering is justly praised. Most of the reviews I've read really like this set, save for one pretentious, pompous twit. It's hilarious to me to read these things - one person's opinion speaking as if for everyone, and acting for all the world as if he is THE ONLY Sibelius expert out there. Well, pal, your fellow critics disagree with you and so do I. But what's so much fun is that in each personal reading of these works that I've heard I hear new things because they all have their own point of view. So far, Barbirolli in the first and second is, for me, a clear winner - the recordings, first of all, are so beautifully detailed with every orchestral detail clear as a bell in the way that I love, so that's a big plus. But his conducting and his point of view is, for me, in these first two symphonies, exemplary. Sanderling, too, has a real way with this gorgeous music. Bernstein, whose set I really liked on first hearing, seems heavy-handed compared to these others - lots of fire and passion, but none of the icy quality of Sibelius, which is very important to the work. And Berglund, despite sound I'm not in love with, I still like for certain symphonies. But this Barbirolli will automatically become top shelf if it continues like this.
