Sibelius: Symphonies 2 And 5 (recorded 1935-1936)

"The newly-formed English orchestra ... play within an inch of their lives and the results are thrilling. A fevered intensity is sustained at a pitch that, far from being self-indulgent, as many critics have suggested, only serves to emphasize the extraordinary concision of Sibelius' formal logic. The filler items are no less great, too; particularly notable is the powerful and deliberately rough-hewn Tapiola with the Boston Symphony that showcases to an even greater degree than the Symphony that concentration of purpose that is a defining feature of Koussevitzky's Sibelius. ... There is no questioning the authority that Koussevitzky brings to these admittedly second-rate works.

These are, for me, the greatest recordings of Tapiola and the Seventh Symphony; some may prefer the more muted approach of a Maazel or an Ashkenazy, but Koussevitzky's blazing grandeur makes them sound almost inconsequential."
-- Geoff Wood, www.inkpot.com, November 2004

("Good")"Koussevitzky's expositions of two Sibelius symphonies prove to be highly intense, glowing, in all rather romantic. Stupendous, again, is the extremely high standard of the Boston Symphony Orchestra, as is the sound of the restored recordings."
-- Rémy Franck, Pizzicato, January 2002

"Serge Koussevitzky is perhaps best known as the pioneering modernist who, during his 25-year music directorship of the Boston Symphony, commissioned many of the greatest works of the 20th century. He was also one hell of a conductor, as this outstanding disc proves. Sibelius was a composer whose music Koussevitzky regularly championed and these two performances, recorded in the mid-1930s, reflect both his passionate commitment and his radical interpretative insights. The Second Symphony is taut and sinewy, with the last movement turned into a sombre ceremonial where most conductors opt for overblown, romantic opulence. After a deceptively low-key start, the Fifth builds with astonishing cumulative intensity towards the most electrifying performance of the finale imaginable, while the playing is hair-raising throughout. Superlative stuff, a great bargain and absolutely unmissable."
-- The Guardian (London), December 7, 2001