Anne Sofie von Otter, Sibelius

The superior orchestrating skills of Finland’s most famous composer Jean Sibelius are clearest in the seven symphonies for which he is justifiably renowned. They are also equally manifest in his tone poems, two of which receive new treatments here from Finns Hannu Lintu and the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra.

Like his musical predecessor Richard Wagner, Sibelius took great inspiration from Nordic folklore and epic poetry, and there are many echoes of Der Ring des Nibelungen in this program. Tapiola (1926) has been read as a musical description of Tapio, the wood nymph who inhabits the “thick, dark forests” of The Kalevala, Finland’s national mythic saga. However, the composer cautioned against too literal...