Another instalment in Osmo Vänskä's next-generation Sibelius cycle, turning from the poetic Lahti orchestra to the full-blooded Minnesota sound. And full-blooded the First certainly is...Altogether, Vänskä's new interpretations, sturdy and intense rather than richly Romantic, offer persuasive alternatives in a crowded market.

On a technical level it sounds impeccable. The polished string sonority, allied to trim woodwinds and meaty brass, gives the performances a completely different atmosphere to Vänskä’s first Sibelius cycle with the Lahti Sinfonia

The passion and sweep of the First...is even more electric than in Lahti...[in the Fourth] this most stylistically advanced of Sibelius's symphonies emerges equally well as a hugely powerful utterance. With superb sound as always from BIS, this new disc has set the bar for all to follow and past ones to be measured against.

Vänskä’s latest thoughts on Sibelius are certainly worth hearing

Vänskä's approach now seems more interventionist; he's less willing to let the music to unfold at its own pace, urging it forward. While that certainly results in a thrilling account of the First Symphony, it does make the brooding opening of the Fourth and some of its later climaxes seem contrived and stage-managed

exceptional: incredibly tense and energetic, yet teeming with detail. The orchestral sound, lithe and sparse, suits Vänskä’s unsentimental approach. Look elsewhere if you want romantic bloom, but I find these crouching-tiger interpretations thrilling.