Three new CDs of the Sibelius concerto, one of them new and the remaining two reissues. The newcomer on Finlandia is Miriam Fried's second recording of the piece: her first with the Belgian Radio and Television Orchestra under Rene Defossez appeared with the Chausson Poeme some time after her triumph at the 1971 Queen Elisabeth Competition in Brussels (DG Privilege—nla). ''Enormously assured and mature, these performances have chutzpah from beginning to end'' is how EG described that record. Her present reading is not wanting in that respect either! I have heard more ethereal accounts of the opening bars though there is great breadth here. She pulls back at the Largamente section (five bars after fig. 3) rather more than did Kyung Wha Chung on Decca or do Accardo, and Amoyal on Erato/RCA (to go no further in the alphabet) but almost convinces one that she is right. She brings great tenderness and feeling to the slow movement though not perhaps the purity of Chung or Accardo. I found her finale curiously lacking in exhilaration—her tempo is about the same as Ferras, steadier than the pace favoured by Accardo. The Finlandia record is splendidly engineered with a very truthful perspective between soloist and orchestra, and a well integrated orchestral balance. All the same, the Finlandia issue is handicapped by a less generous coupling than many of its rivals listed above: both Pierre Amoyal and Viktoria Mullova (on Philips) offer the Tchaikovsky Concerto, Nigel Kennedy for EMI has Simon Rattle's most recent version of the Fifth Symphony and with the incomparable Heifetz performance RCA give us his hardly less wonderful readings of the Glazunov and the Prokofiev G minor Concertos. This disc is in a class of its own. No criticism of Okko Kamu or his fine Helsinki players is intended but as far as the international market is concerned, the Finlandia planners should surely have been more aware of the competition, particularly as the two new reissued rivals are at mid-price.
Christian Ferras and Herbert von Karajan are still strong contenders. When it first came out Trevor Harvey thought better of the Ricci/Fjeldstad on Decca (nla) and noted the ugly solo entry at fig. 6 in the first movement, which still sounds unpleasing. However, there is much more to admire than cavil at and I would have thought its claims far from negligible particularly as it offers a classic account of Tapiola and a magnificent Finlandia. This version of Tapiola is marginally more impressive than the later EMI account though not the most recent DG issue. Salvatore Accardo and Sir Colin Davis give a far more refined presentation of the concerto than either Chritian Ferras or Miriam Fried and of the mid-price versions this would be a first choice for me. There is no playing to the gallery here, no schmaltz, and in the slow movement a sense of repose and nobility. The finale is exhilarating and there is an aristocratic feel to the whole which I liked at the time and still do. Accardo has the advantage of an excellent coupling, the Dvorak concerto—Shlomo Mintz and Abbado are similarly paired on DG and although the Mintz has what they call 'glitz', the Accardo is the more natural and unforced. Of course, there are other strong performances of the Sibelius on bargain labels, notably, Shizuka Ishikawa with the Brno orchestra under Jiri Belohlavek (Supraphon/Counterpoint) but the Accardo is better recorded. It belongs among the very best now available: for my money Heifetz is still the best buy with Accardo, Amoyal, Mullova and Ishikawa as eminently satisfying and thoroughly recommendable.'