Orchestral, Incidental Music, Sibelius (composer)

It has a magic of its own which Andsnes casts equally, with his pure-source sound and range of colours, over early, middle and late Sibelius. The crystalline cascades of the Impromptu that launches... — BBC Music Magazine, December 2017, 5 out of 5 starsMore…

The level of music-making presented here tells its own story. This is a Sibelius recording that’s up there with the finest of any era...And in the two groups of violin-and-orchestra pieces –... — BBC Music Magazine, July 2025, 5 out of 5 starsMore…

The Lemminkäinen Suite has tended to be viewed as an important staging post on [Sibelius’s path to the symphony]…What Sakari Oramo shows is that it’s a marvellous achievement in its own right,... — BBC Music Magazine, August 2019, 5 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…

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…

Karajan recorded the Fourth Symphony three times, once in the 1950s with the Philharmonia and twice with the Berlin Philharmonic. The work obviously meant a great deal to him. He insisted on... — Gramophone Classical Music Guide, 2010More…

The evidence here is of a serious artist, with a strikingly individual, but in no way contentious view of Sibelius’s much-performed symphony. The Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra must have played... — BBC Music Magazine, June 2020, 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…