While it remains a pity that Ansermet didn’t venture further into the bleaker landscapes of Sibelius, less may well be more, and these epic recordings of the Second and Fourth symphonies, together with a raw reading of Tapiola are collected together on CD for the first time. The mood of desolation continues with the Paris Conservatoire Orchestra’s recording of Rachmaninov’s hypnotic tone poem ‘The Isle of the Dead’.
CD1
JEAN SIBELIUS
Symphony No. 2 in D major, Op. 43
Tapiola, Op. 112
CD2
Symphony No. 4 in A minor. Op. 63
SERGEI RACHMANINOV
The Isle of the Dead, Op. 29*
L’Orchestre de la Suisse Romande
Paris Conservatoire Orchestra*
Ernest Ansermet
Recording producers: Michael Bremner (Sibelius); Victor Olof (Rachmaninov)
Recording engineers: James Lock (Sibelius); James Brown (Rachmaninov)
Recording location: Victoria Hall, Geneva, Switzerland, October 1963 (Symphony No. 2), November 1963 (Symphony No. 4, Tapiola); La Maison de la Mutualité, Paris, France, September 1954 (Rachmaninov)