The Minnesota Orchestra will release its first album in its highly anticipated cycle of Sibelius symphonies. Nos. 2 & 5 are on the CD produced by BIS. It will be available at the orchestra's web site on Jan. 13.
Osmo Vanska, of course, is one of the world's leading interpreters of music by his Finnish countryman. Vanska previously recorded a Sibelius cycle with at Lahti in Finland.
Vanska and the orchestra recorded the two symphonies at Orchestra Hall last June. They will continue the project this spring, recording Nos. 1 & 4 in the final sessions before Orchestra Hall goes under renovation for one year. It's anticipated that all seven symphonies will be recorded by 2015, the 150th anniversary of Sibelius's birth.
The second symphony had its premiere in 1902; the fifth followed in 1915.
The Orchestra and BIS have collaborated on a number of critically acclaimed discs. The Beethoven symphony cycle received a New York Times notice that wondered if it "may be the definitive cycle of our time." Vanska and the orchestra are also working with soloist Yevgeny Sudbin on the Beethoven piano concertos, the first of which was released in December, 2010.
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