I agree with you about both Solti's Elgar and Davis' Sibelius, Rob, but after Ormandy's and Karajan's Sibelius 7, I still find Mravinsky's crude. Maybe a lot of that has to do with what we are imprinted with when we first encounter the music. As you say, folk should make up their own mind and could start by sampling this on YouTube:
Let me raise one quiet dissenting minority voice about Mravinsky and his 1965 Sibelius Seventh.
Having been 'brought up' with high expectations of Colin Davis's Seventh with the Bostonians and a broadcast tape of Jan Krenz conducting 7 with either the BBC Phil or BBC Scottish, I found the work unexciting/lacklustre. [Same applies to the always venerated Elgar 1 and 2 by EMI/Boult in the 1970s; always preferred the high calorific versions of 1 and 2 by Decca/Solti]. Before that, and on a teenager's limited budget and limited equipment (Philips cassette recorder EL3302), I purchased a DG cassette of Sibelius 4 (or was it 6?) and 7. His seventh was just too 'refained' and too smooth. After this, hearing Mravinsky in his super high tension Seventh (on a secondhand EMI/Melodiya LP from a shop in Bristol) was overwhelming ... and I am still overwhelmed despite have heard more than a few excellent versions since then. For me that Leningrad trombonist intoning the great sepulchral theme like something from primeval times still lingers, grips and raises a frisson. I go back to it from time to time and it has never disappointed me. Since then Segerstam's version of Ondine and the old reading by Ormandy/Philadelphia on CBS-Sony have registered strongly but have not displaced Mravinsky in Moscow in 1965.
A minority report from me but one I wanted to contribute to this strand and encourage others to hear Mravinsky in this work and in The Swan. Make up your own mind. Rob
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