Thank you so much dave! I was absolutely shocked in the begining of the video, thinking I'm about to watch just another entertaining video about something i love, and being greeted with a birthday blessing from you. It has made my day a very happy one! On another matter, you haven't done the Scarlatti sonata escapade for a long time, and I suggest sonata k 380, wich is a great showcase of scarlatti's spanish side, and seems to me as a sort of dialogue from inside his soul.

I have just this moment been "treated" to the last movement of Sibelius 5 on BBC Radio 3, conducted by a certain Santtu-Matias Rouvali. All I can say is that by the end of this aural experience (in which the complete absence of emotion was by no means compensated for by the presence of EXTREME detail) I finally understood what you mean by modern young conductors micromanaging their recordings. Thank you for your seemingly endless music appreciation course which has transformed my life and revitalised my listening experience.

Well Dave, you have done it, now. For as long as I have known Sibelius 5, my reference recording was Karajan/Berlin, for the mastery of the accelerando in the first movement. But...that Bernstein finale is something else...It reduces the Karajan version to a beautifully polished but rather cowardly display of orchestral beauty, without getting to the soul of Sibelius. Bernstein, however, lets it all hang out! He masters the accents, the dissonances, the rhetorical phrasing. Karajan's version, however dearly I love it, is Karajan. Bernstein's version is Sibelius.

Your comments ring true for this listener who purchased the LP when first released. Also your comments on the sonics were absolutely on target. Enjoying your channel. Keep up the good work!!!

I'm a bit surprised "The Reference" wasn't Karajan's from 1965 or so. How they used to flog that recording in the British press, and let's face it, it's a great performance. Still Dave I wholeheartedly agree on your assessment of Bernstein's effort. I'd even stick my neck out and say between Bernstein's Sibelius Fifth and Mahler Third, they're the best works he ever recorded...period.

Had the recording you are holding up in the LP version. Now have two separate Sony CDs that pair Bernstein's Sibelius' Fifth with Ormandy Philadelphia recording of Sibelius's First. Pohjola's Daughter is on a disc of Sibelius Tone Poems mainly performed by Ormandy and Philadelphia, with Bernstein neatly inserted in between. CAN'T GET ANY BETTER !!!! Another winning video, Dave...

Thanks for a very informative discussion. The Fifth was the first Sibelius composition I heard in concert, with Gaetano Delogu and Czech Phil in 1979 (if memory serves). A studio recording exists on Supraphon that Mr Hurwitz praised in his talk about S5 some time ago. Apologies for this sentimental comment. I agree completely that the Bernstein NY Phil is THE reference.

i like it when i get the reference recording exactly wrong; this was a most valuable video

Hello Dave! I am waiting eagerly for Leos Janáček to appear in this series! Best wishes Fred from Kristianstad.

Sibelius #5 is the symphony I like most from Sibelius. However, the ending is strange and unsatisfying. May be I should look up Dave's older videos about the piece and learn a few things from him about that

Hello Dave. The reference recordings videos are great. Love them. Here's an idea: your favorite (not reference, but your personal favorite) Sibelius symphony recordings. Each one.

Just switched on, and here you are! What better welcome can there be? I love this Bernstein Sibelius 5. Speaking as a non-muso, I feel the ending is amazing, and I've heard quite a few recordings where it sort of goes a bit squidgy! Bernstein - and Colin Davis (Boston) are brilliant.

Happy birthday to our friend ! On another subject, will you review the new Enescu symphony cycle on DG ? I was very pleased to see this release even if I think the Lintu cycle is kinda better.

Believe it or not I'd never listened to Lenny conducting any Sibelius. The 5th is a crackerjack recording! Now listening to 3 after 7!

Interesting, I'm of a similar vintage to you Dave and started collecting around the time you would have been. I was lucky to get the Davis BSO set in a Philips box on release, and luckily I now know they are considered good entry performances. After all, I couldn't afford multiple versions back in the day. I don't remember reading much about Lenny's Sibelius, but then again, I shied away from the domestic US releases because I thought they were technically at a lower level from the Euro ones. I do remember the 60's HvK Berlin performances were always highly regarded, but after I heard them I never thought of them as being totally representative, being more in the HvK lush sonority style that he is known for (I call it the Strauss filter because of how it paints everything with such post romantic lushness). Anyways, long story short, I owe it to myself to listen to more of Bernstein's Sibelius. Not that it matters but my favourite 5th has been Barbirolli's 1959 Halle performance for the elemental portrayal of the Swan theme and gnarly dissonance in the closing measures.

Thank you for interesting videos! I'm quite new to classical music, but I would like to know if you have recommandations for minimalistic classical composers or pieces. Arvo Pärt is of course one of my favorites. I enjoy lot of symphonies and massive pieces also, but minimalistic classical/neo-classical is sort of form of meditation for my soul. Thanks! Greetings from Finland!

I need to listen to Bernstein 5th (Columbia) again. I tend to not deviate much from Blomstedt and Segerstam. San Francisco and Salonen released Sibelius 5 recently.

Hey, Dave, just watched your interesting video about symphonies 1780-1880. However, I have no idea why but underneath the video itself it is completely blank therefore giving me no opportunity to tick a like or make a comment. Hope this is not some You Tube thing going on here. With reference to that video, and I'm sure you have a very good reason not to mention them, but I wonder why the Berlioz Fantastic Symphony, Schubert's 9th Symphony, the Franck symphony and the Bruckner 4th did not get onto your excellent list with which I entirely agree. Also entirely agree with the reference for the Sibelius symphony.

Interesting. In the rest of the world it seems to be Karajan's 60s DG recording.

I always am disappointed when we don’t clearly hear the fff timpani. Tx Dave. Bd is July 22….

Obviously most of the references recordings come from the 1950-70s period. But it’s interesting, what is the latest modern released recording you consider as a reference?

Bernstein isn't the reference for the 7th as well? The first one I mean.

Interesting. Going off of my own anecdotal experience of what I’ve seen most often cited I would have thought the Karajan/Berlin on EMI would get the nod (Glenn Gould, for example, cited it as his favorite). And Karajan had undeniable Sibelius cred, with the composer having called Karajan his finest interpreter. I once mentioned that to a very smart conductor, who tartly replied “Yeah, but it was only after Sibelius’s death that Karajan started going downhill.”

Hi Dave! Watching your reference recordings made me think that most of the consensus choices points to late fifties/early sixties productions. Was that period a kind of golden era of classical music?

It's interesting that you say none of the other Sibelius symphonies (other than 2 & 5) have reference recordings. I would have thought that an obvious reference for No. 7 would be Serge Koussevitzky with the BBC Symphony Orchestra. Personally, I don't care for that recording, but it does tend to be the one everyone compares other recordings to, which kind of makes it a reference, does it not?

The critics in my college years were mostly malcontents, and one compared this interpretation unfavorably with the Kousssevitzky. The DG Karajan makes a fascinating comparison with this one, which was my first Fifth.

I will always be championing Bernstein's Sony Sibelius symphonies. It's THE reference set to own IMHO. No. 1, 3, 5 & 7 are particularly special, even 'transcendental' if you like the term.