Title: Okko Kamu - a great Sibelian reaches Berlin
Product review: Finnish conductor Okko Kamu, now largely forgotten, made recordings of Scandinavian music with his own Helsinki Radio Sym. for DGG and other labels a generation ago. So far as I know he only got to record with the Berlin Phil. once, in this 1970 Sibelius Second. This was Karajan's orchestra, of course, but he chose not to record this symphony a third time(his two version are on EMI with the Philharmonia and BPO), so perhaps that gave Kamu an opening.In any event, the orchestra plays magnificently, the sonics are fine, and the performance is first rate. Sibelius is open to so many interpretive styles that I sometimes think there's no such thing as a bad Sibelius Second. This one is flexible, at times fiery and explosive, always expressive, and tremendously viruosic. Only the finale, which begins with a slow, low-key build, may give pause. The additional fillers are the familiar, and very successful ones from Karajan. Five stars.
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