Concert Hall, Helsinki Music Centre, Mannerheimintie 13 A, 00100 Helsinki, Finland
This wasn’t the claimed live relay, the severe editing was proof of that, but some research determined that this programme was played on April 3 and 4. Drifts contrasts mysterious passages – subtle changes of colour within the quieter end of the dynamic scale – against filmic fortissimos: reasonably effective over ten minutes. The first movement of the two of the Bartók corresponds with the first of his Opus Five pieces – rapturous, intensely expressive – played tenderly by Kristīne Balanas (she made a big impression) and who made structural and emotional sense of the other movement’s complexities. Jukka-Pekka Saraste ended his Helsinki Sibelius Symphony Cycle (all on Stage+) not with the ultimate Seventh but with the dark, bleak Fourth in an unvarnished, truth-telling account – spacious, despairing, shadowy, inconsolable – determined if conflicting in the Finale (Saraste opting for glockenspiel) and perfectly judging the closing page, strictly in tempo, no way out.