Word: sibelius
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...probably for these reasons that Koussevitzky rarely plays classical music, and never pre-classical. Little Haydn, no Handel, and no Schubert is heard in Boston. Koussevitzky's selections among Romantic composers are generally restricted to that Virgil Thomson calls "the symphonists that descend from Brahms'--Tchaikovsky, Sibelius...
Even in this, his particular specialty, Koussevitzky has not been considered above criticism. While his performances of Tchaikovsky, Sibelius, and Franck are highly regarded in many circles, there is also a school which claims that their main virtues, their contemplative qualities are sacrificed to effect by Koussevitky...
...usual sensational and distorted performance of the Sibelius Fifth was then run through in fine style. This work is, to me, the best Sibelius has ever written; it contains at least two first rate themes: one starting the second half of the first movement, and the other running pizzicato through the andante mosso. The blown-up, excessively melodramatic performance (including the shaking, not vibrating, string) which Koussevitzky provides does not, however, penetrate deeper than the outer edge of the surface. However popular the interpretation may be, it cannot be considered valid; it stuns the audience, but it is not within...
...Soviet romantics as Tchaikovsky, Mussorgsky, Borodin, Rimsky-Korsakov. The younger Soviet composers are generally more gifted and expert than those of the U.S., less jaded than those of Western Europe. Western Europe's only living first-raters, Germany's Richard Strauss and Finland's Jan Sibelius, are aged men whose best work is already a generation...
Therefore, extreme care must be used in choosing programs from the Romantic school. This year, we have heard Berlioz and romantic Beethoven, then Rimsky-Korsakov, Rachmaninoff, and Sibelius. This week we shall hear Tchaikovsky. The choice here appears quite unfortunate. Perhaps this will be remedied later. But not even the ghost of an impressionist has entered Symphony Hall, despite the recent productivity of Milhaud...