It’s handy for the music industry that Sibelius and Nielsen share an anniversary this year (both were born years ago 150). The two Scandinavian post-Romantics can be neatly paired on one sparse, pine-forested postcard, but what’s so enticing about this recording from the excellent Latvian violinist Baiba Skride – besides her gorgeously rugged sound and straight-up, natural delivery – is that she clinches the distinct voice of each composer. Her Sibelius spins a silvery chill before sweeping headlong into brooding, furrowed-browed melodies. She navigates the storms of the Nielsen less smoothly, but then it’s a rougher piece, and exactly right that her attack is skittish, vulnerable and ballsy in quick succession. Her Adagio is simultaneously luminous and intensely sad – so beautiful that I had to listen to that movement on repeat. The Tampere orchestra sounds clean, supple and boisterous under its young chief conductor Santtu-Matias Rouvali. He, meanwhile, is the latest sit-up-and-listen talent to emerge from the great Finnish conducting tradition.
