Sibelius: Finlandia/Tone Poems.

Customer Rating:
Summary: TAKEN BACK IN TIME
Comment: Sibelius: Finlandia/Tone Poems - No Finn in America should be without this. Thanks to Amazon and the seller, it brought me back 50 years ago when I was a child with Mom. The old record she played until it wore out.

Customer Rating:
Summary: World-class recording at a ridiculous bargain basement price
Comment: Wow.

Despite a very low price, this is nothing short of a world-class compilation of Sibelius's tone poems.

I guess it shouldn't come as too much of a shock that this disc is the real McCoy; after all, we're dealing with the Philharmonia Orchestra under the seasoned baton of Finland's Paavo Berglund. And the sound...wow again. These are some of the most warm, crystal-clear sonics I think I've ever heard on a Sibelius recording. How can the price be so low for all this good stuff?

While everything here is stupendous, the two pieces that really stand out are THE OCEANIDES and TAPIOLA. In fact, they have become, I think, my favorite recordings of those pieces (and I am a devoted Sibelian).

I have never heard THE OCEANIDES played with such power. And then there's TAPIOLA. Never better has the mystery and terror of Sibelius's northern forests ever been commited to a recording. The orchestral detail is astounding and the crescendos pack a primaeval wallop. It's simply perfect.

At this price, or at any price, this is a Sibelius recording to treasure.

Customer Rating:
Summary: A Fine Bargain!
Comment: A marvelously performed and warmly recorded compilation of favorite Sibelius tone poems from one of the late 20th Century's foremost conductors of Sibelius...and it's dirt cheap! I can no more adequately describe the Romantic "chilly warmth" of this dramatic music than I could live above the Arctic Circle; there's no other music quite like it. It took me until I lived over twenty years in Northern Michigan to warm up to it, then its appeal became obvious -- go figure.

Customer Rating:
Summary: life is beautiful. loud. multifaceted,nuanced and cheap.
Comment: its the last thing to consider in buying music, really but look at how much sellers want for this CD. Then consider the conductor Paavo Berglund, a man with an ear for detail. His almost consistently perfect sense of timing and balance bring you the best tapiola I've heard, compared with Karajan, Davis, Jaarvi, Beecham, et al. phantasmagorical. crank your bass up for the swan (track 2), you'll find the neighborhood flora leaning towards the house in a reverie of past-life deja vu. Its full-on romanticism, no worries about period shmeriod, proper this or that.just SOUND. If passion and tumult are the hallmarks of these craggy pieces, we are incredibly well served by the Philharmonia (mostly here) upon pressing play. modern life has its quirks.

Customer Rating:
Summary: My first classical music
Comment: This is probaly the first real introduction to classical music I've had outside the usual Beethoven, Tchaikovsky, and Bach. I've fallen in love with the drama that plays through the tracks on this album. The music moves through countless moods. Definately worth your time!