# 100 Favorites: # 92



## JACE (Jul 18, 2014)

*Sibelius: Symphony No. 2
Eugene Ormandy, Philadelphia Orchestra (Columbia/Sony)*










After conducting an exhaustive review of Sibelius recordings, here's what critic Richard Kaplan had to say to about Ormandy's Sibelius Second in _Fanfare_ magazine:

_"*DESERT ISLAND VERSION: Ormandy (1957)*. This is Sibelius's 'big' symphony: not only his longest, but the one with the most expansive gestures, and the only one with a definitively triumphant ending. It may not, as Sibelius insisted, have a literal program, but it certainly suggests a musical journey from pastoral to struggle to triumph. It doesn't need much 'tweaking'; the drama and beauty are built-in. This early-stereo version is classic Ormandy: broad and powerful, yet effortless. The wind solos, from John de Lancie's oboe to Samuel Krauss's trumpet in the slow movement, are gorgeous."_


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