Osmo Math Wizard

First Beethoven, then Sibelius and now Mahler: Music Director Osmo Vänskä and the Minnesota Orchestra launch their newest major recording project with an album of Gustav Mahler’s three-part, five-movement Fifth Symphony.

The source of the Lemminkäinen Suite is the Finnish national epic Kalevala, and its four movements – of which ‘The Swan of Tuonela’ is often performed separately - tell of the adventures of the young hero Lamminkäinen. In comparison, The Wood-Nymph only had its first complete performance in 1996. This was given by the performers on this disc, a team which has become synonymous with top-flight idiomatic Sibelius performances.