Karajan was never at his best in Sibelius’ Second Symphony. Although he does well enough in the first three movements, the finale suffers from a penchant for grandiosity that makes it seem to go on forever. That said, the playing of the Philharmonia is really beautiful, as is also the case with the Fifth Symphony, Karajan’s finest recording of the work. He handles the transitions in the first movement smoothly, adopts a sensible tempo for the Andante that brings out plenty of the music’s amiable charm, and the finale not only features marvelous contributions from the strings and horns, but Karajan’s timing of the final chords works extremely well. These are quicker than usual, and the approach makes much more sense than the “stretch out the rests” renditions we often hear today. The remastered 1960s sonics are vintage EMI from the period, meaning warm and well balanced (better exposure for the woodwinds than Karajan would permit in his Berlin remakes). This is worth it for the Fifth, if you’re a Sibelius completist.
