SIBELIUS: SYMPHONY No. 1; FINLANDIA; TUONELA; KARELIA SUITE - ROYAL PHILHARMONIC, ALEXANDER GIBSON

Sibelius: Symphony No. 1 / Karelia Suite / The Swan of Tuonela / Finlandia

Sir Alexander Gibson / Royal Philharmonic Orchestra

“The new recording on Collins by Sir Alexander Gibson (a Sibelius specialist) … is easily his best version and can hold its head high among the competition. … [T]he orchestral playing [is] thoroughly committed and involving, and is, predictably, free from eccentricities: in short, it is a performance of integrity. &hellip [The recording] is able to accommodate climaxes with greater comfort… microphone placing secures greater transparency from the strings although there is no lack of vividness and presence.”
— Gramophone

Gibson was a much under-recorded conductor, so this reissue of his tight-reined, yet sweepingly intense way with early Sibelius is especially welcome. The RPO responds to him in classy style. — BBC Music Magazine



Sibelius: Finlandia, Op. 26
Sibelius: Karelia Suite, Op. 11
Sibelius: Lemminkäinen Suite, Op. 22: The Swan of Tuonela (No. 2)
Sibelius: Symphony No. 1 in E minor, Op. 39