Sibelius: The Complete Symphonies, Kullervo

Amazon.com

From the Slavic-tinged exuberance of the First and Second to the dark undercurrents of the Fourth and Fifth and the passionate abstraction of the Sixth and Seventh, Sibelius’s symphonies loom larger than ever among the 20th century’s influential orchestral landmarks. Petri Sakari charts the composer’s rugged, sometimes cryptic terrain with authority and inspires the Iceland Symphony Orchestra to a generous and heartfelt performance. You won’t find the opulent sheen of Karajan’s or Ormandy’s Sibelius, nor the micro details Paavo Berglund elicits from his Chamber Orchestra of Europe remakes, but Naxos’s modest asking price will bring you idiomatic, atmospheric, deeply felt performances that reveal more with each hearing. Jorma Panula’s fine traversal of Kullervo ranks close to Berglund’s reference EMI version (the earlier of his two for the label). A Sibelius cycle, in sum, to stand at the top of the list alongside Davis-Boston (Philips), Vanska-Lahti (BIS), and Berglund-Helsinki (EMI). –Jed Distler