When Sony/BMG released their inexpensive Ormandy Conducts Sibelius set I naturally got it, as I wanted to hear the 70s RCA recordings, which I didn't care for at ALL - performances were okay but not great and sound was so sub-Columbia that it was hard to get past it. But they also included all his Columbia stereo stuff, and that sounded as splendid as always although I have other performances that I like better. But for some wacky reason what they didn't include were his mono Sibelius recordings from the early 1950s. Since they included symphonies four and five I was most irritated as I really wanted to hear them because the only time he recorded the fifth in stereo was in the 70s for RCA and I really don't like it. But some company overseas did a vinyl transfer of the two Ormandy mono Sibelius albums - the two symphonies and then two tone poems, The Swan of Tuolena and Finlandia. So, I got that and I just heard it and the fourth symphony is fantastic, and the fifth is a stunner - maybe, musically, my favorite version ever now. Yes, it's mono so it doesn't sound as enveloping as the stereo versions I have, but it's good mono (one can only imagine what the tapes sound like if the vinyl transfer is this decent), and the engineering is superb. So happy with this and am about to listen all over again. I'm also lending a period comic book to the Lost in Yonkers production so that it looks like it should.
