Re-reviewing ‘classic’ recordings is always a tricky business, especially in those few instances where a critic’s opinions do not quite square with all the accumulated critical adoration. In the case of Ginette Neveu’s feted account of Sibelius’s Violin Concerto, although I admire the strength, passion and stamina of the solo playing, I find Walter Susskind’s Philharmonia accompaniment rather foursquare, especially in the finale. For me, Heifetz and Beecham triumph every time (Heifetz with Stokowski is something else again – but more of that anon). Still, EMI’s famous recording is a fine memento of a fiery interpretation, and the solo line comes across with miraculous immediacy in Mike Dutton’s transfer – better, in fact, then the orchestra, which tends to retreat under a veil whenever the music quietens.
Barbirolli’s impulsive New York recording of the Second Symphony burns bright and fast, but there are countless minor imprecisions that, for me, would irritate on repetition. In his excellent note, Lyndon Jenkins wags an admonishing finger at the contemporaneous American Record Book for insisting that this recording was ‘not comparable’ with other available versions, a view that I would second (sorry, Lyndon) – adding, perhaps, that neither is it comparable with the best of Barbirolli’s subsequent recordings. A handful of slow but distant swishes suggests that Dutton’s generally excellent refurbishment might have been based on an early LP transfer.'