Conductor Paavo Berglund transformed several orchestras into world-class ensembles over his long career. Known as a perfectionist, he specialized in the music of Sibelius and made three complete recordings of his symphonies. Paavo Berglund and the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra recorded this cycle of the symphonies of Jean Sibelius between 1972 and 1977, with additional recordings of the tone poems dating from the same period.

This album showcases recordings by two major violinists of the mid-20th century, Josef Hassid (1923–50) and Ida Haendel (1923/8*–2020). Both were from similar backgrounds, born in Poland of Jewish descent in the 1920s, and both had their first major successes in London in the late 1930s. Their recordings also document an important shared influence, the teaching of Carl Flesch (1873–1944). Flesch was a major virtuoso of the previous generation, but who made relatively few recordings (Ed: 1905-36 Odeon, Edison, Electrola, DGG).

This is the world's first SACD reissue of Lalo's famous performance, which combines the beautiful and rich sound of violin of Ida Handel with Czech Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by Karel Ančerl. This reissue uses a new DSD sound sourced from the original analog master tape. The jacket photo uses the original LP design, renews the sound quality and reprints.