Sibelius – Violin Concerto in D Minor, Op. 47 – BBCPO / Downes / Fujioka – FLAC

Live off-air recording from BBC Radio 3’s Lunchtime Concert – Late 1990’s

Playing time: 32:15

FLAC (Level 8) – https://mega.co.nz/#!Rlx13aBQ!PklWgF_IjgWmIEgAYMk2lxq23kdQZMDKp4nGpnk rNnI (140mb)
MP3 (LAME 3.99.5 -V0) – https://mega.co.nz/#!g0pkVC6Z!SE89t090OGE7SubNje09liDg6dFzdQzuRy2wwaU fRks (56mb)

YouTube – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ce1vltL8AcE

So, as probably everybody knows by now, when I was 14 I started making off-air (television and radio) recordings of live concert broadcasts.

This preserves a lunchtime concert broadcast by BBC Radio 3. It was recorded in the Westmorland Hall in the small town of Kendall, Cumbria. Sachio Fujioka is introduced as the violinist but as far as Google reveals, a conductor exists by that name, but no violinist… I’m sorry I can’t shed any further light on this mystery – Fujioka the conductor did indeed work with the BBC Philharmonic in the late nineties… Who knows? Either way, it’s a lovely performance of Sibelius’ concerto that would otherwise be forgotten. The orchestra under (we assume) Sir Edward Downes (rest in peace) is superb and the soloist – whomever s/he may be – makes light work of Sibelius’ occasionally virtuoso, always lyrical solo part.

Technical notes

Most of my radio recordings were made with a common cassette deck, but in the very late 1990s, I made a series of experimental recordings on VHS tape. At the time, it was (relatively) common practice amongst "hobby" audiophiles to take advantage of the near-CD quality sound VHS had to offer. Nearly twenty years later, I remain astonished at the quality of these recordings; they’re not perfect, but I find them to be, on the whole, very good indeed.

Enjoy! 🙂
TT