Okay, this is a release I am very happy to see coming. I wonder if anyone else knows when this is going to be released in Canada and the US? Very happy this is finally coming!

The official release date as per Naxos USA is September 9, 2016.

Thanks, Mark for the info. Looking forward to this!

Thanks, Mark for the info. Looking forward to this!

You can hear excerpts from every movement of all three symphonies on-line

I've been listening to this disc repeatedly for the last couple of days. The unfortunate labor strife that led to the extended delay in this last recording in the series seems, if anything, to have resulted in performances that are even more committed, even more powerful than their excellent predecessors. The recording quality is even better as well. I couldn't help but be swept away.

I bought it today from eclassical.com in 5.0 surround flac files for just over 10 USD, and have listened once. Performance and sound are both glorious; the 7th, especially, is probably the best I have heard.

(Double posting, sorry)

Having heard that Vänskä's 7th twice again, I never before have heard how clearly classically it is built. Like an Allegro, an Andante, a Scherzo, and a long Finale. It's only 23 minutes long but how well it's done!!! It's like Mozart, or Haydn. Only some 150 years later.

Received a negative review in Classics Today, along with the others in this series for conducting.

"Well, I don't know what to think about this disc. I'm currently listening to the finale of Symphony No. 3 and Vänskä's view seems to be too aggressive. I totally agree with David Hurwitz when he mentioned that the Vänskä/Minnesota cycle has been a disappointment. In most cases the atmosphere seems to be too serious. The natural flow of the music be conspicuous by one's absence.
The tempo choices of Vänskä are also worthy of attention. The second movement of Symphony No. 2, for example, took 16'30 while Kamu calculated it to 14'33 and Sir Colin Davis to 14'38. Two minutes slower, as you can see. In my view Vänskä tries to smuggle his own strange theatre to the music. Of course there are some lovely moments, for example in the Symphonies Nos. 4 and 6.
I don't have negative comments about the recordings of BIS. Using the best available equipment the spacious and sonorous acoustics of the Minnesota Concert Hall have been captured in an exemplary manner.
Now I'm listening to the finale of Symphony No. 6. Again, too aggressive tone. The gentle coda of the movement should be very smooth and beautiful, I think. But now one feels that the cigar chokes the throat of the Finnish composer. And unfortunately the religious melody at the end sounds too fast and too stressful.
Sadly, not recommended. Try the Sibelius: Symphonies 1-7 - Kamu. Next year we will hear the rest of Sir Colin Davis's Sibelius/Philips cycle, I hope so".
- Performance: ***
- Sonics: ***** (Stereo)

Reviews of Vänskä's concert performance of the Sibelius 3rd at Carnegie Hall earlier this year were excellent. See the New York Times and New York Classical Review, both published March 4, 2016. The Guardian gave the BIS SACD 5 stars (top rating).

It was my good fortune to see maestro Vänskä conduct the San Francisco Symphony several years ago. I found his interpretations enthralling and insightful. Carping reviewers who dismiss his recordings are in the minority: he has justifiably earned high respect from the musicians of the Minnesota Orchestra, discerning concert audiences and SACD collectors.

Gwynn Parry-Jones reviewed this as a "recording of the month" on Music Web International calling it "magnificent and authoritative". I mean no disrespect to our site reviewers whose work I greatly appreciate, but basing opinions solely on what reviewers have to say is pointless, they're human beings with enthusiasms and blind spots just like the rest of us. I'm old enough to remember when Gramophone's resident Karajan hagiographer actually praised his recording of the Nielsen 4th for NOT having a fill-up, so that even short measure was a plus when it came to a Karajan recording.

Also, I agree with Luukas that parts of Vanska's Minnesota 2nd are too slow, unlike the gripping performance he conducted here in Philadelphia a few seasons back, but since the discs in Vanska's set are separate issues I fail to see the relevance. Timings in all but two movements on this disc are within a few seconds of Kamu's excellent renditions and of those one is slower and one is faster. In the final analysis each of us responds to the music/performance/recording in his own way so it's largely irrelevant that I find this the more compelling recording of 3, 6, and 7. I'd just urge anyone who loves this music to hear the disc for himself.

Luukas' experience with this disc rung a chord with me. I have not heard the disc as such but his allusion to Vänskä being overly-aggressive with the 6th & 7th fits perfectly with our experience in London a few years ago when he subbed at short notice for Sir Colin Davis's anniversary concert at The Barbican due to the ill health of maestro SCD - from which illness, sadly he never recovered. Vänskä took up the baton for the original programme which included the 6th & 7th and the VC. He was really aggressive with both symphonies to the extent in our view of losing a lot of the insightfulness of both works