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In the New York Times this morning, music critic Anthony Tommasini has a piece entitled “Grandeur of the North, Yours by the Bushel, From Sibelius”. In it he describes how the Bis label has just embarked on a new, long-term project to release the complete works of Jean Sibelius in 13 volumes, totaling some 70+ CDs by 2010.

This is exciting news. You see, though I don’t quite qualify as a genuine “Sibelian”, I certainly enjoy the Finnish composer’s music, and do have a reasonable selection of it in my personal collection, including a couple sets of his seven symphonies, many of his important tone poems, and even some of his vocal music - the Finlandia with chorus most notably.

In addition to my own collection, at work I have access to many thousands of recordings, including hundreds of compositions by Sibelius. And, although my job entails little more than listening to music, I still would think that, given his status at the nation’s premiere newspaper, on top of free tickets to every major concert in New York, Mr. Tommasini would have a pretty sweet CD collection. This is why it surprised me to read that he only heard Lemminkäinen’s Return“for the first time” in 1997. Now, God bless him, he got to hear it under the baton of Sir Colin Davis–a Sibelian if ever there was one–but still, for the first time? It isn’t like that tone poem is especially rare. It is, after all, part of the suite that includes the well-known Swan of Tuonela. I am certain that Mr. Tommasini has heard countless pieces in concert that are much more obscure than Lemminkäinen.

Meanwhile, a recording of that piece has been available on disc for decades. In fact, I played the complete Lemminkäinen Suite, Op. 22on my show within the last month or so. I don’t mean to criticize Mr. Tommasini; I enjoy his reviews a great deal. I suppose, more than anything, this says something good about the music education I have received, both from working as a DJ, and from reading whatever material I could get my hands on that would expand my understanding of the vast body of Western art music.

That said, even though I already have Neeme Järvi’s disc of Lemminkäinen–naturally, on Bis–I am still quite interested in the notion of a “complete” Sibelius traversal.