https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m001b5my
The Times ****
“a meltingly lovely rendition…tensile and strong…spruce textures and chiselled phrasings…played with a brilliance, precision and delicacy that showed what a fine symphony orchestra Collon has at his command. Debussy’s La Mer was especially striking, every shifting texture shimmering with an icy clarity…magical”
The Arts Desk ****
“completely engrossing…the playing was very fine throughout and in Collon, the first non-Scandi chief conductor of the Finnish RSO, the orchestra has a conductor they clearly trust to lead them in the music of their national composer. “
Seen and Heard International
“From the opening horn rise, there was warmth and air, and a sense of fluid movement – of continual development and cohesiveness. In the first movement the string textures were a preciously formed bed of sound from which the woodwind and brass could rise in finely sculpted gestures, but it was evident that the latent energy would not be contained and a tense bassoon solo and pressing unison strings urged in the first iteration of the horn’s ‘wild swans’ theme. Those long Sibelian pedals had terrific tension, propelling the ‘waltz’ into something altogether darker which then brightened into a blaze of Eb-major glory. The Andante mosso was tender and roomy, the pizzicatos clean and fresh, the woodwind wonderfully nasally and warm. Collon had a good grasp of Sibelius’s extremes of movement and stasis…We had an encore: Sibelius’s Valse Triste, played with a lovely, tender insouciance.”