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Paavo Berglund
Posted by Len Mullenger on February 4, 2012, 10:10 am 217.155.206.169
Dear Mr. Mullenger,
I just discovered the obituary for Paavo Berglund on MusicWeb. Like so many others, I have a great fondness for his Sibelius recorded legacy. But I am writing this for another reason. If there is one work that he recorded that stands at the very pinnacle of my affection, for both the work and the performance, it is his EMI — not RCA — recording of Carl Nielsen's 5th Symphony.
I watched and waited for years for this to appear in CD format, but it was never to be. So I finally had it transferred from my LP by a professional recording engineer here in Eugene, Oregon. The name is Gung Ho Studios, owned by Bill Barnett; and it was about a dozen years ago.
But for me the point is that I think I've heard every recording of Nielsen's Fifth ever made (to my knowledge); and I never heard one to quite equal this early Berglund recording — though I am expressing this as a non-musician, and merely as a music lover. So in terms of Berglund's legacy, I would like to cast a vote for the Berglund/Bournemouth recording of Nielsen's Fifth. All things considered that I am competent to consider, the runner-up would have to be (though possibly it is somewhat a sentimental choice) another old recording: that of Bernstein and the New York Philharmonic.
Thanks, Mr Berglund and bon voyage. And thanks, Mr. Mullenger, for your kind attention.
Sheldon Lichter
Re: Paavo Berglund
Posted by Jeffrey Davis on February 16, 2012, 10:32 pm, in reply to "Paavo Berglund"
I have been pestering EMI to issue that excellent Berglund performance of Nielsen's 5th on CD too. There was some talkof it hapening a while back but there have subsequently been big cuts in EMI's classical division which may have prevented the release.
Berglund's sibelian performance of Vaughan Williams's Symphony No 6 is another neglected gem, but fortunately it is now available on CD. Other candidates for CD release are Edward Downes's Bax Symphony No 3, Morton Gould's Vaughan Williams recordings and Miaskovsky's Symphony 21 (a wonderfully reflective performance) with Rimsky Korsakov's 'Antar Symphony' and also Tjeknavorian's first (RCA not ASV) recording of Khachaturian's Symphony No 1 with the LSO.
