There have in all been more than 70 recordings of the Sibelius Concerto. The Heifetz/Beecham account for the Sibelius Society on HMV was the first, and for collectors in this country the celebrated 1946 Ginette Neveu HMV version (3/88) was the second. However, during the 1940s other recordings appeared from Bustabo and Zaun, Kulenkampff and Furtwangler, Telmanyi and Jensen, and the present version by the Finnish violinist Anja Ignatius, with Sibelius's brother-in-law, the composer Armas Jarnefelt conducting.
This was issued in 1971 on a Scandia LP, although never available in the UK. I have not encountered Ignatius's name elsewhere, but Clough and Cuming's The World's Encyclopaedia of Recorded Music (Sidgwick & Jackson: 1952) lists a record of Sibelius's Mazurka, Op. 81 No. 1 played by her. She first performed the Sibelius Concerto in Berlin in 1930 when she was 19. However, her commercial recording was made in that city under the most unfavourable conditions in 1943 (bombs were occasionally audible, even in the studio, and rehearsals were cut to a minimum, not a single retake being permitted). Apparently only four copies of the set ever reached Finland: side joins are audible and there is an especially ugly one in the finale. In his perceptive note Veijo Murtomaki writes of Ignatius's ''uncommonly lyrical and refined approach'' to the work; certainly she is more spacious and less dramatic than many players I know and totally unconcerned with ostentation. Her tempos tend to be broad and while she obviously possessed considerable artistry, it is obvious that her technical mastery was not of the order of Heifetz, David Oistrakh, Cho-Liang Lin, Stern, Perlman or any of the other virtuosos whose recordings enjoy renown. There is obvious warmth in her playing (also from Jarnefelt), but her vibrato may be wider than some would like.
Schneevoigt's Sibelius Society recording of the Sixth Symphony was made by the Finnish orchestra on a visit to London in 1934 and though the playing occasionally sounds rough (particularly in the scherzo, which is rushed), it is good to hear what the orchestra that performed so much Sibelius for the first time actually sounded like. An interesting though not mandatory addition to the Sibelius discography; certainly not as memorable as Kajanus's records of the First and Second Symphonies and tone-poems from this period (see above).'