Sibelius: Symphony 2 & 6
This is part of Sir Colin Davis's second set of Sibelius's symphonies. The first recordings, with the Boston Symphony for Philips, were highly acclaimed in their time and remain available on two budget-priced sets. Since the BSO plays with a palpably lusher sound than the LSO, many listeners may still prefer those recordings. But these newer performances have more powerful climaxes, and overall a more aggressive approach to the music which grabs the listener's attention more immediately, sometimes a very positive factor in enigmatic music like that of Sibelius. RCA's recording is amazingly fine.--Leslie Gerber