Christian Tetzlaff’s effortless virtuosity, purity of intonation, and slight emotional reticence perfectly suits Sibelius, making this the finest available collection of the Finnish composer’s music for violin and orchestra. In the concerto, Tetzlaff’s relative coolness makes the music sound more like Sibelius and less like a violin concerto, which is all to the good. That doesn’t mean he lacks anything in sheer technique: indeed, his first-movement cadenza impresses as one of the most impressively concentrated and musically satisfying on disc. Tetzlaff’s slow movement sings but avoids panting and heaving, while the finale realizes the music’s gentle melancholy as well as its more thrusting elements. He’s nicely accompanied by Thomas Dausgaard, whose gentle support perfectly suits the overall interpretation.

It may well be that it is not chamber music that immediately comes to mind when you think of Sibelius. That's fair enough but he certainly wrote pieces for chamber groupings. There are, for example some single movements for quartet composed when he was a young man. Then comes this A minor quartet of 1889 and there's at least one other apart from the B flat quartet known as Voces Intimae. There are also a few pieces for strings and piano like the Piano Trio of 1884.

After the resounding success of Volume 1 (Gramophone Editor’s Choice, Preis der Deutschen Schallplattenkritik, Diapason d’Or, Choc de Classica, FFFF Télérama), the project to record the complete Sibelius symphonies continues with the Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra and Santtu-Matias Rouvali, whose career as a conductor is entering top gear: he has just been appointed Principal Conductor of the Philharmonia Orchestra in London. At the turn of the twentieth century, as Finland struggled to free itself from Russian rule, Sibelius and his wife faced several domestic dramas, including the loss of one of their daughters, Kirsti, to typhoid fever.

A fresh new recording of Jean Sibelius early breakthrough work by the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra under its conductor Hannu Lintu. This recording with two male choirs, the Estonian National Male Choir and the Polytech Choir, brings up the full drama of this gigantic 70-minute work which during Sibelius lifetime was often referred to as a symphony. The work tells the story of Kullervo, a tragic hero drawn from the Finnish national epic, the Kalevala. While a student in Vienna, Sibelius started planning to write a large work that would crystallize the rising Finnish national feeling in music.

As well known as the music itself is, the full background to Finlandia, the great symphonic poem composed by Finn Jean Sibelius, was unfamiliar to me until very recently. It turns out that Finlandia was originally part of a larger work that Sibelius composed in 1899 with the rather unartistic title "Press Celebrations Music". The seventh movement of that work, "Tableau 6, Suomi herää (Finland Awakes)", was later reworked into a stand-alone piece and became known as Finlandia, and this is how we have generally heard it performed since that time. It has become recognized as one of the most important national songs of Finland, but it is not the national anthem, that is Maamme ("Our Land").

In this new concerto album one of the greatest violinists of our time, Christian Tetzlaff, performs two standard violin concertos in fresh new interpretations together with the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin directed by the orchestra’s exciting new music director, Robin Ticciati. Both Ludwig van Beethoven and Jean Sibelius made outstanding contributions to the history of music as great symphonists. Both composers also wrote a violin concerto – Beethoven wrote his D major concerto in 1806, Sibelius his D minor concerto a century later.

The founding of the Berliner Philharmoniker on the first of May in 1882, is annually celebrated in an European city of cultural significance. In 2015 the EUROPAKONZERT takes place for the second time after 2004 in Athens, with Leonidas Kavakos joining the Berliner Philharmoniker for the Sibelius Violin Concerto and Bach’s “Largo” from Sonato No. 3. The concert was a smash hit, stunning the audience on site in Athens.The soloist on this recording, Leonidas Kavakos won the ECHO Klassik Award in 2013 as ‘Instrumentalist of the Year’.

The Italian word malinconia was very commonly used in the nineteenth century as a title for melancholy pieces. Yet the idea of malinconia covered a myriad of romantic notions, so that simply translating it as "melancholy" does not do it justice. It subsumes many other emotional states as well - all kinds of dejection, gloom, unknown sadness, desperation, depression and even frustration. Each language has evolved its own terms, and interpretations of the word itself also differ from region to region. Malinconia in sunny Italy or Spain is quite different from melancholy in Norway and in Finland, where the winters are harsh and long. The Nordic variant is expressed here in various musical examples; words alone are anyway inadequate.

This sensational disc has served as a reference edition for both concertos since it was first issued back in the late 1980s. The Sibelius concerto is distinguished by the tension between Lin’s passionate and virtuosic account of the solo part and Salonen’s remarkable precision at the head of the orchestra. Listen, for example, to the remarkable rhythmic clarity at the opening of the finale, and to the way this serves to “float” Lin’s daredevil pyrotechnics up above. It’s just marvellous. The same holds true of the Nielsen–there is no finer account of this neglected concerto. It’s a rarity because in the finale Nielsen subordinates flash and dazzle to the work’s overall emotional arc, progressing from anger to contentment. That doesn’t mean the music isn’t excellent, or that Lin and Salonen’s performances aren’t gripping from first note to last. They tear into the opening movement with apt ferocity and find the necessary emotional resolution in the work’s amiable conclusion. The detailed, well-balanced sound ideally suits the interpretations. Essential.

Conductor Wilhelm Furtwangler already enjoyed a worldwide legendary standing during his lifetime - he was considered the German conductor and performances were greeted with rapturous applause. Today, more than 50 years after his death, Wilhelm Furtwangler is still an icon and his work has become an integral part ofthe music scene.

Eero Heinonen has long been a champion of the composers neglected output for piano. With this recording he continues to make the case for music that does not easily give up its secrets but, in the right hands, sings with Sibeliuss unique voice. Sibelius was not himself an accomplished pianist, but he wrote for the instrument at which he composed throughout his career, and maintained that, while often overlooked, its time would come. In recent years his prophecy has come true, especially with the Op.75 suite of five pieces which he composed in 1914 and titled The Trees.

Finnish baritone Arttu Kataja fell in love with Lied music in his first singing lessons at the age of 16 but the idea of his own Lied record was born only after he had worked as a professional for years. The collaboration with pianist Pauliina Tukiainen had already begun years earlier, and the joint record project also felt natural. Both artists have roots and identity in Finland, but both have grown up in the profession and worked in Germany for years. In addition, both Kataja and Tukiainen share a passionate and uncom-promising attitude towards Lied music. In recent years, the couple has given concerts not only in Central Europe but also in Helsinki, where their interpretation of Schubert's Winterreis was a critical success. They will start the 2020/2021 season with a Lied concert at the Berlin State Opera.

Invitation to the Dance is the 2001 New Year's Eve Gala Concert with the Berlin Philharmonic. The annual concert is famous for having a varied program from year to year, and in 2001 conductor Daniel Barenboim treated the world to a fantastic program of musical "dance." From Bach to Sibelius, from classical to samba, this concert has it all! The BPO and Barenboim go all out for this one, and experiencing the DVD is the next best thing to being there!

Kullervo represents not only the confident first step in Sibelius's symphonic odyssey, it is also a viscerally exciting experience on its own terms. It is little wonder that the first performance in 1892 was such a triumph for the young composer. This recording from Thomas Dausgaard and the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra in an unmissable acquisition for anyone who knows only the numbered symphonies.