SACD, Sibelius (composer)

Mälkki and the orchestra remarkably conjure the dark, swirling soundworld of ‘Lemminkäinen in Tuonela’ (the Hades of Finnish legend). And the concluding ‘Lemminkäinen’s Return’ canters along... — BBC Music Magazine, March 2024, 4 out of 5 starsMore…

[Davidsen's] breath control and even fullness of tone across a two-octave range prove radiantly equal to Sibelius’s uncompromising demands. — BBC Music Magazine, September 2021, 4 out of 5 starsMore…

Dalene has a strong command of long evolving lines – crucial in both composers – but he balances that with a fine feeling for ‘speaking’ phrasing and articulation...The expression can certainly... — BBC Music Magazine, May 2022, 5 out of 5 starsMore…

While their elder conjures in translucent textures the otherworldly darkness of Lemminkäinen’s sojourn in the Land of the Dead, Madetoja and Pylkkänen opt for galloping drama and pathos in depicting... — BBC Music Magazine, January 2022, 3 out of 5 stars (Performance) / 4 out of 5 stars (Recording)More…

The orchestra's sound under Vänskä has a kind of sharp-focus richness that's never cloying. — BBC Music Magazine, August 2016More…

Lintu has added nothing to the familiar score [Tapiola] – just heard things it seems others haven’t heard before. Best of all is the way he draws out singing lines almost throughout the piece…I’m... — BBC Music Magazine, January 2018, 5 out of 5 starsMore…

For Kamu, [Tapiola] is a drama of the imagination and one discerns dimly the forest god moving between the trees, just as Sibelius intended. WIth superb sound, this is strongly recommended. — Gramophone Magazine, January 2012More…

a highly memorable disc. — BBC Music Magazine, May 2017, 4 out of 5 starsMore…

The organ has a really gutsy, symphonic core... Jan Kraybill... plays with considerable verve and a feeling both for colour and for the grand gesture. — Choir & Organ, September 2019, 4 out of 5 starsMore…