04. Jean Sibelius - Tapiola. Tone Poem, op.112 [16'15]
Tossy Spivakovsky*- violin with London Symphony Orchestra conducted by Tauno Hannikainen
Everest SDBR 3045 (recorded November 1959; LP issued 1960; digital download 2006)
(24bit/96kbps FLAC digital downloads, booklet and cover scans
Recording venue: Walthamstow Assembly Hall, London
Recording engineers: Bert Whyte & Aaron Nathanson; Producer: Bert Whyte
Here's another classic from the Everest back catalogue, with two of my favourite 20th century compositions. They are issued here in high-definition downloads by Countdown Media with fine remastering, if not quite in the same class as Omega's Vanguard Classics issues.
Tossy Spivakovsky offers a sometimes wayward but always exciting and dramatic performance of the Violin Concerto, ably abetted by the conductor and orchestra. Although it may not be quite as engrossing as more recent efforts by Vilde Frang, Lisa Batiashvili and Akiko Suwanei, it's still a performance and recording that I frequently return to.
The Finnish conductor, Tauno Hannikainen, also gives a masterful performance of Tapiola. It's as perfectly paced and is as appropriately bleak and ice cold as you could wish. Both performances have the usual superb sound quality, originally recorded to 35mm magnetic tape.
PS: In the rather more generous Omega issues, Tapiola was re-coupled with Eugene Goossen's recording of Tchaikovsky's Manfred and the Violin Concerto with Spivakovsky's rather less successful recording of the Tchaikovsky Concerto with Walter Goehr. Good remastering of Hannikainen's other Sibelius recordings made for World Record Club - Symphonies No.2 & No.5 and Karelia Suite with Sinfonia of London - are hard to find. The Magdalene set, which also includes these Violin Concerto and Tapiola recordings, is distinctly second rate.
Download from MEGA:
https://mega.nz/#!ARplzJzS!TsR7skqHl2RzkARk3cOevQ1Fn6rKS0NsqXMw-Q4l5WU