In one sense this is in a class of its own in that none of the comparisons listed above is at super-budget price. Paavo Berglund’s account is at mid price and the remainder are at full price. Most collectors, I suspect, turn to Naxos as a means of getting to know a piece, for the outlay involved is a fraction of a concert ticket. However, after a while it is the quality of a performance rather than its cost that concerns you.
Jorma Panula enjoys a considerable renomme as a professor of conducting, and his pupils include some of the leading Finnish conductors of the day. His performance is dedicated and completely straight; indeed so straight that it is distinctly sober and could do with greater abandon and momentum. True, there is some measure of exhilaration later on, and the middle movement has some fire and spirit, but the fourth, “Kullervo goes to war” remains obstinately earthbound. Having spoken of its sobriety I can hardly call it vin ordinaire but it does not lift the spirits as do Saraste, Salonen or Segerstam who is agreeably unidiosyncratic. The Turku orchestra are obviously good, but not in the same league as the rivals listed above. The singing from both soloists is admirable, though I have heard this chorus on better form.
The recording is immediate without much depth or front-to-back perspective and the listener is placed fairly forward. If you really don’t want to pay the full price for the others or wait for Sir Colin Davis’s version with the LSO, which is on the way, this provides an acceptable stop-gap but no more.'