Right from the opening pulsating string figures, one realises that this will be a very fine reading of Sibelius' enigmatic symphony. Enigmatic, not because of complex material but in fact the opposite - on the surface, at least, it is so clearly neo-Romantic but scratch a little deeper and the bleaker, more abstract Sibelius is straining to throw these constraints away.

Jansons has already provided the listening public with a highly recommendable Sibelius partial symphony cycle (on EMI, RBCD) and on the basis of this disc, it is to be hoped that he provides another from his new "home". Pacing throughout is nigh-on perfect, as are the allusions he draws from the score; at once rich and sparse. Jansons, like Abbado in Mahler, convincingly marries the "conventional" episodes with those that are forward-looking towards the mature Sibelius. At the same time as there is no sentimentality, the reading is full of emotional force.

The RCOA are, as always, superb - their tone is beautiful without being rich for the sake of being rich and whilst this is a live recording, the ensemble is wonderful and they exhibit sensitive musicianship throughout. The partnership between Jansons and the RCOA is clearly developing into something very special indeed.

The engineers deserve our thanks for they have captured a most beautiful sound, clear but rounded (not a dry sound to be heard) and the ambience of the Concertgebouw is very well reproduced. A credit must go to the audience too for until the final peroration has concluded and they burst into spontaneous applause, the listener will have no idea that this is a concert performance.

My only gripe is that for less than 45 minutes of playing time, RCO Live ask a fair amount of money for this, placing the disc (in value-for-money terms) well into the premium price bracket by comparison to their Bruckner 8 or Rachmaninov/Stravinsky discs.

Copyright © 2006 John Broggio and HRAudio.net

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