Less than a year since Paul McCreesh took the Choral Award with The Dream of Gerontius, in March the superb Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra under conductor Nicholas Collon (and with John Finden in the title role) showed that there is another way to explore this music with a validity and impact all of its own in their Elgar recording. ‘A captivating recording of a complex score,’ wrote Jeremy Dibble, adding ‘the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra justify their reputation’. A few months later, in July, they further bolstered that fame in Sibelius: ‘The searching middle section of the first movement where we are suddenly enveloped in cloud and mist is extraordinarily atmospheric, the solitary bassoon lost in time and space. But then finally comes the majestic sunburst and the subsequent feeling that all nature is dancing,’ wrote Edward Seckerson – and that’s just the first movement of the Fifth Symphony, Christian Tetzlaff later joining them for an impressive performance of his Two Serenades and Two Serious Melodies. Collon – known for his innovative and imaginative work with the Aurora Orchestra – took up the post of Chief Conductor in 2021, the first non-Finn to have done so. The recordings to have emerged since are compelling.

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