Pierre Monteux often bemoaned the fact that he was associated\nwith the French and Russian repertoires, to the exclusion of music\nfrom outside of those traditions. He could hardly help it; after\nall, it was Monteux who conducted the first and famously chaotic\nperformance of Stravinsky’s Le Sacre du printemps in 1913.\nNevertheless, he recorded all of Beethoven’s symphonies (some of\nthem more than once) and all of Brahms’s, with the exception of the\nFourth. He made only one recording of Sibelius’s Second. This came\nlate in his career, in 1959, and was the only commercial recording\nhe made of this composer’s music. Monteux conducts the score with\nevident affection, and with a lush romanticism that suggests the\nMediterranean more than the cold waters of the Baltic Sea.

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Receiving its first international release on CD is Lorin\nMaazel’s recording of the Karelia Suite, made around the same time\nas his Vienna Philharmonic Sibelius cycle. Together with Monteux’s\nSibelius Second, it is one of the most-requested reissues from the\nDecca catalogue.

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