Jean Sibelius: Symphonies Nos. 2 & 5

Now, some 15 years after the appearance of his previous cycle of Sibelius’s symphonies, Finnish conductor Osmo Vänskä has returned to the works in recording, and with his Minnesota players he has recorded the first disc in a new cycle. The Sibelius expert Robert Layton, in his introduction to the programme, presents the Second Symphony as ‘the symphony by which many music lovers find their way to Sibelius’, and in his discussion of the Fifth he quotes the composer himself, in a comment about symphonic form: ‘a river with innumerable tributaries feeding it before it broadens majestically and flows into the sea’.

Music Web International: Recording of the Month, July 2012; 5 Diapasons, Diapason 05/2012