Sibelius: Symphonies No. 6 & 7, The Tempest

With this release, the Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra under Santtu-Matias Rouvali concludes their cycle of Sibelius's symphonies. The first recordings in this series have already received numerous international awards and reach their climax here with three of Sibelius's most important symphonies: in his introductory text, Andrew Mellor writes that "the music is driven forward by forms of gravity-like energy, similar to the force that determines the course of a river". Rouvali has also recorded eight excerpts from Sibelius's stage music to Shakespeare's "The Tempest". The work, which premiered in March 1926, is one of Sibelius's last orchestral works and certainly his most fascinating theatrical composition.