Sibelius’s biographer Erik Tawaststjerna (I write this on the 30th anniversary of his death) once stated that Herbert von Karajan was ‘the only conductor who understands the Fourth Symphony’. I like to think he might have moderated his view had he lived to hear Osmo Vänskä’s recordings; no pressure then on any others tackling this immensely difficult score. Full marks for endeavour to Santtu-Matias Rouvali and the Gothenburg Symphony (an orchestra with an exceptional Sibelius pedigree – nice to see each player listed in the booklet) with fine playing throughout in a rendition that just falls shy of greatness. Momentum is an issue, especially in the opening Tempo molto moderato, quasi adagio, well over a minute slower than Karajan in 1965 (a recording Andrew Achenbach and I waxed lyrical about in Classics Reconsidered, 5/15). The loss of impetus might have served Rouvali well if his interpretation concentrated on the structure, but he focuses rather on moment-by-moment details, often tellingly; ironically, Rouvali is quicker than both of Vänskä’s (by almost a minute compared to the Minnesota version). Here and in the Il tempo largo, Rouvali cannot equal Vänskä’s or Colin Davis’s sense of epic – if glacial – flow and crystal-clear detail. Rouvali almost matches their feathery deftness in the Scherzo, and the finale fares better, though the close is over-emphatic: not the mf Sibelius wrote, nor its sense of exhaustion, the music left hanging in the (slowly thawing) air.

The Wood Nymph is an early work, from 1895, and in need of the considered refinement that transformed En saga into a masterpiece. Nonetheless, The Wood Nymph is a fine piece and deserves to be better known (the score being lost for the best part of a century did not help its cause). Starting in a style reminiscent of the Karelia Suite, it dives off into darker territory just as the unwary Björn ventures into the forest in pursuit of the wood nymph of the title. The music catches the spirit of Rydberg’s poem rather well and, in turn, Rouvali and the Gothenburgers provide a performance to match, full of sweep to rival Vänskä’s premiere recording in Lahti, and outpointing Storgårds, who reined in the tempo overmuch in Helsinki, making the final phase drag, albeit rather grandly. The encore, Valse triste, which has so many competitor versions, is done very nicely. Excellent sound.