Album: Stravinsky / Sibelius, Violin Concerto / Symphonies 3 & 6, (Avie)

It seems like an odd combination, but this framing of the Russian gadfly's neoclassical Violin Concerto in D with the sorrowful Finn's resinous Third and watery Sixth Symphonies is remarkably persuasive.

Soloist and director Thomas Zehetmair delivers a pristine performance with scant vibrato and arrestingly tight articulation. The Northern Sinfonia's strings sound rehearsed to the max, and though the Stravinsky is glorious, both Symphonies could do with a little more bloom and a little less discipline.