Jean Sibelius: Symphonies Nos.4/5 (Naxos Audio CD)

• On this second volume of Sibelius Symphonies (Nos. 1 and 3 are available on Naxos 8.572305), the acclaimed young Finnish conductor Pietari Inkinen interprets two of his compatriot’s most contrasting symphonies.

• Symphony No. 4 is a work of ominous brooding and bleak desolation, reflecting Sibelius’s psychological state at the time of its composition. Sibelius commented of his much-revised and expansively heroic Symphony No. 5 ‘It is as if God the Father had thrown down mosaic pieces from heaven’s floor and asked me to put them back as they were.’

• “This first sample suggests it is going to be a cycle well worth following, for Inkinen seems a conductor of bold, sure-footed intelligence, and on this evidence the New Zealand orchestra is a fine, responsive unit, too.” The Guardian on Vol. 1.