Three of the scores recorded on this CD include choir, and a fourth one is actually Sibelius’s own version for string orchestra of a work originally written for male choir a cappella. The reworking of Rakastava (which translates approximately as ‘The Lover’) retains the thematic material of the choral original, but the very idiomatic and rhythmically subtle string writing is wholly characteristic of the mature composer. The third movement features a solo violin and cello, assuming the rôles that vocal soloists had performed in the choral version of the suite.

---

Release: Sep 2001