The classical music recording industry must be in better shape than we think: this is the culmination of Osmo Vänskä’s second Sibelius cycle in little more than a decade. The first with Finland’s Lahti orchestra was widely regarded as “the one to have” but these BIS performances with the Minnesota orchestra (which seems to have at last survived its travails, fortunately) have run that cycle close. This CD lasts 82 minutes – with magnificent sound. As an aside, why, one wonders, can’t more CD’s offer such outstanding value? 

The Third, Sixth and Seventh are, each, in its own way, emotionally ambiguous and unconventional and occupy their own unique sound world’s, just as do the symphonies of Beethoven and Vaughan Williams. The Third Symphony has always been one of my favourites, despite, or perhaps, because, of being, along with the Sixth, the least performed, but arguably, the most original, even by Sibelius’ standards. The coherent whole transcends the disparateness of the individual movements. I love the Haydnesque bustle of the opening movement and that sudden pause shortly after the start, which seems like a sort of gasp from someone suddenly realising they’re hovering on the edge of a precipice, or contemplating a barren expanse. 

Vänskä’s tempi are moderate throughout but the second movement is unusually slow, prompting unfavourable comments from some reviewers. I find it charmingly wistful and melancholic, with a slight arctic chill. The potentially awkward transition from the scherzo-like introduction to the third movement to the triumphant march is well handled, although no one will ever rival the magnificent horn whoops of the treasurble old mono-only Philharmonia recording with Paul Kletzki and Dennis Brain (bizarrely never issued in the UK). Nonetheless, Vänskä’s Minnesotans invest this finale with plenty of heft.

In the Sixth, Vänskä and his players are determined to create tone colours in a work which can sometimes seem insipid without them. As it is, it always seems strangely asymmetrical while radiating an exquisite tenderness and it’s here the Minnesota strings come into their own with their pellucid tone and refinement. “Pure spring water” indeed.

Sibelius’ swan song, the Seventh, perhaps symphonic music’s most compressed masterpiece (and miracle?) is well handled. At 22 minutes its tempi are mainstream. (It was the weak link in Arvo Volmer’s ASO cycle a few years ago – he casually cruised through it in, I seem to recall, about 17 minutes!) Vänskä makes the sound plateau between the dramatic interjections of the trombone. I can only quote one reviewer who described it as the musical equivalent moving tectonic plates. The ending is one of music’s great quizzical statements, here, performed and interpreted to perfection.