Sibelius Cycle 3, Berliner Philharmoniker, Rattle, Barbican
Rough and ready, ultimately magnificent, the conclusion to a series worthy of the hype
The Seventh Symphony was by some way the most scrappy and inaccurate of the performances in the Sibelius cycle given at the Barbican by, it must be said again, the world’s best orchestra. The oboes crunched a chord that fairly made you wince. A few bars later, the famous strings were all over the place.