Listeners who recall with fondness John Barbirolli's sumptuous Sibelius recordings or Thomas Beecham's suave Sibelius recordings or Herbert von Karajan's sensual Sibelius recordings may be unprepared for Paavo Berglund's severe Sibelius recordings. But listeners who recall Robert Kajanus' relentlessly tragic Sibelius or Georg Schnéevoigt's inexorably driven Sibelius will receive Berglund's Sibelius recordings with open arms. In his mid-Eighties recordings with the Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra, Berglund shows himself to be the heir to great Finnish Sibelius conductors of the past. In this two disc set of the First through Fourth Symphonies, Berglund emphasizes the music's brave heroism along with its bleak tragedy, its passionate love of nature along with its despairing nihilism, its symphonic unity along with its enigmatic intensity, and, somehow, manages to balance all these elements in interpretations which touch the essence of greatness in Sibelius' symphonic art. The Helsinki Philharmonic, whose members have been playing Sibelius since they could hold their instruments, perform with easy strength, complete sympathy and total empathy. EMI's early digital sound is richer, warmer and deeper than most early digital sound.