#NowSpinning Beethoven Symphony No.8 from Kubelík’s complete DG box. This is an interesting cycle, taking in many of the World’s finest orchestras! The different characters bring a lovely sense of variety in sonority, though the conducting itself is pretty consistent.

#NowSpinning Ravel’s Rapsodie Espagnole, with Ormandy in Philadelphia. More interesting artwork. I used to be allergic to mono sound, but there are so many treasures that sit out of reach of you don’t try. This is most definitely one of them!

#NowSpinning Virgil Thompson’s rather enjoyable Louisiana Story Suite. This is wonderfully evocative music, whilst not being particularly challenging at all. Just the kind of interesting repertoire choices Ormandy made so frequently.

#NowSpinning from the Ormandy Columbia Legacy mono box. An oddity, in that both the Stern Tchaikovsky and the Piatgorsky Saint-Saëns Cello Concerto No.1 appear to be conducted by Anders Hilsberg. I assume it was included for the orchestra. No Ormandy in sight!

Absolutely effing fabulous effort Spain. We love you. Congratulations you absolute heroes.

#NowSpinning the wonderful absurdity that is Ligeti’s opera Le Grand Macabre. This is next up in the big Salonen box and what a Sunday treat it is. How many works begin with an entire prelude for…car horns? Well, we have at least one!

#NowSpinning Madetoja’s wonderfully dark, strange and slightly edgy Okon Fuoko. Just the Suite today, but I would recommend the whole work, under Volmer on Alba.

#NowSpinning Eduard Tubin’s fabulously heroic Symphony No.3. Another work that should be far more popular than it is. It’s highly characteristic of Tubin’s music, which is generally distinctive and highly involving.

#NowSpinning a Mahler 9 that almost never gets mentioned. I know that Dave Hurwitz has spoken about its virtues a fair bit, but I’ve seen little else. It’s a pretty magnificent reading on every level. Slow at the start, but genuinely heartfelt and powerful.

Some thoughts on the recent Saraste Sibelius cycle. Generally I found it reliable, though I do feel 5 and 6 needed more pathos and mystery. Otherwise, the experience of the conductor really shines, particularly in 7.

#NowSpinning Tubin’s ‘Legendary’ Symphony No.2. The opening is visionary and evocative of wide open space.

#NowSpinning RVW’s stupendous Sea Symphony with Thomas Hampton, Amanda Roocroft, Andrew Davis and BBC forces. This is a generally underrated cycle, I think. But time to reappraise.

#NowSpinning Mahler 4. Chailly finds elegant poise rather than wide-eyed magic, which is a perfectly valid approach.

#NowSpinning Richard Hickox’s sublime but somewhat slow RVW Pastoral. There are dark, turbulent undertones in this work, but they are often overlooked. Not so in this emotionally engaged and finely-crafted performance.

Happy Birthday to the great Gustav Mahler. Looking great for 166, buddy. Oh, here, have some great Mahler recordings to chew on.

#NowSpinning Bartók’s Divertimento for Strings under Fricsay. Now here is a conductor whose performances were always delivered with incredible conviction, particularly with music from his great compatriots.

#NowSpinning Liszt Hungarian Rhapsodies 1 - 10 with Cziffra in 1957. He went on to record these works again in the 1970s, but it’s fascinating to hear his earlier take.

#NowSpinning Manfred Honeck’s account of Dvořák’s evergreen New World Symphony. The taut ensemble at the first outburst, near the beginning brings an incredible sense of tension. This is going to be special.

#NowSpinning Shostakovich’s Leningrad with Barshai in Cologne. I like the forward momentum here. Rather more immediately purposeful than many at the start of the first movement.

#NowSpinning Dvořák Symphony No.7, one of his supreme masterpieces. This is immediately more dramatic-sounding than his version of 6. The Liverpudlians certainly know how Czech music should go.

#NowSpinning Regardless of what we think of the performances - which are excellent, by the way - the artwork makes these LP era Ormandy releases quite special. The music-making makes these releases even more special, though, and that really matters.

#NowSpinning Prokofiev’s Alexander Nevsky from Ormandy Philadelphia. This is music that demands colour and atmosphere. I can think of very few more qualified combinations of conductor and orchestra, certainly from this era.

#NowSpinning a very little known gem from Ralph Vaughan Williams. The Charterhouse Suite is a gorgeous piece for strings and includes a haunting Rondo that really sticks in the mind. It’s a glorious moment flowing beauty.

#NowSpinning Bartók’s Third Piano Concerto with Gyorgy Sandor. With both conductor and soloist from Hungary, there’s a good chance this will work out!

#NowSpinning Dvořák’s Othello Overture, with Pešek in Prague. This is a dramatic masterpiece, at least to my ears. A phenomenally concentrated tour de force. Thoroughly expecting the conductor will treat it that way. Let’s see!

Ah here we go! Coming soon. 8 disc set coming later this summer. I actually only got these fairly recently and I was absolutely blown away. If you don’t know his Shosty, get it! It’s not a complete cycle - 1, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10 plus some suites - but it’s absolutely amazing!

#NowSpinning Eugene Ormandy and his fabulous Philadelphians with Bach, Handel and Corelli. My immediate impression is that when an orchestra is this sophisticated, neither the size nor modern instrumentation are a barrier to subtlety, nuance, charm or elegance!

#NowSpinning Schumann’s Piano Concerto with Krystian Zimerman and Herbert Von Karajan. There’s some indulgence from the 24 year old pianist here. But heck, why not?

#NowSpinning Brahms’s Violin Concerto with Anne-Sophie Mutter and Karajan in 1981. By this point the partnership really was firing on all cylinders. This looks set to be a strongly characterful reading.

#NowSpinning one of four recordings of Riccardo Chailly conducting Mahler’s 8th that have somehow found their way into my collection. This is his Decca studio version. Some have described it as ‘light weight’ but I don’t find it that way.

#NowSpinning Shostakovich String Quartet No.1 with the Sorrels on Chandos. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again. The Shostakovich Quartets surely represent one of the ultimate achievements in all chamber music. And not just for this composer.

#NowSpinningtwo remarkable discs of American music with Leonard Slatkin. His RCA back catalogue is remarkable and the collection of American works in a single box should not be overlooked.

#NowSpinning Corigliano’s Of Rage and Remembrance and Symphony No.1. This is obviously a pair of works that meant a great deal to the composer, who was responding directly to the impact of the AIDS pandemic.

#NowSpinning Arturo Toscanini with Beethoven’s Eroica. I am immediately impressed with the very full and vibrant mono sound. And the orchestral discipline is pretty astonishing.

#NowSpinning Sir Charles Mackerras and the Czech Philharmonic with Leoš Janáček’s Sinfonietta. What a thrilling work this is, especially when played with such idiomatic power. The brass gleam in the opening fanfares.

#NowSpinning another work that’s totally new to me. The Bortkiewicz Piano Concerto No.1 in B Flat. Quite the ominous opening. Portentous and strange. And those are great qualities in music, for my tastes!

#NowSpinning Prokofiev’s Fifth Piano Concerto with Michel Béroff and Kurt Masur. This is an exceptionally enjoyable cycle, with details in both solo and orchestral parts given scrupulous attention.

#NowSpinning Vaughan Williams Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis. This work is almost unbearably moving; I can only listen very occasionally, when my headspace is good. Nice to report that it’s good enough today!

#NowSpinning Rafael Kubelík’s Live Mahler 5 from Bavaria. The winds are really impressive here. Lots of nuance. The strings are almost insinuating.

Let’s give musicians a fighting chance of protecting their valuable instruments!

#NowSpinning Roussel Symphony No.2 with Christoph Eschenbach in Paris. This is a work that fuses relentless rhythmic vitality and uncompromising architectural discipline with striking harmonic originality. We don’t talk about this guy enough!

#NowSpinning Haydn Symphony No.99 with Karajan in Berlin. With half of the Londons down, I am rather enjoying the set. The end of 98 was swift and thrilling, but there have been many lovely things. I do prefer a lighter orchestral sound for these works, but I’ll take this!

#NowSpinning Bach’s Violin Partita No.2, BWV 1004. Absolutely captivating playing here. With the exception of the odd double stop, the music is just one line of melody. Yet Grumiaux makes it sound like there is a world of detail.

#NowSpinning the first of several Haydn London Symphony discs from Karajan in Berlin. I actually really like a big band approach and Karajan’s 93 strikes me as rather lovely so far. It’s definitely not going to be for HIP addicts, but hey ho.

#NowSpinning another wonderful disc from the Naxos American Classics series. Roy Harris Symphony No.4. I already know the 3rd pretty well, but not the Fourth at all. The subtitle ‘Folk Song Symphony’ will give you an idea of the idiom. And there’s singing, too.

#NowSpinning For those who think Järvi is th me only real word on Tubin symphonies, think again. The Volmer set is also superb. If you don’t know these Symphonies, they are approachable and gritty at the same time. There’s a lot of atmosphere and stories to tell…

#NowSpinning Sibelius Symphony No.1 with Jukka Pekka Saraste. This is his third complete cycle and will be at least his fourth recording of the Fifth. I always loved the RCA cycle, but not the Finlandia one so much. Let’s see where this settles.

#NowSpinning Earl Wild lays Rachmaninoff’s Second Piano Concerto with Jascha Horenstein. This set is quickly drawing up alongside Hough for me. I can’t believe it took so long for me to hear it!

#NowSpinning a spot of Mahler with Herbert Blomstedt. This Resurrection has sat in my collection for a long time, but I think I have only listened to it once. So something of a re-discovery this evening. First impressions are of strong forward momentum and inner life.

#NowSpinning Arnold’s two sets of English Dances, from this terrific disc. Thomson absolutely knocks these little gems out of the park, and he’s bloody well recorded, too. The Philharmonia horns are particularly refulgent.