It is as a composer of songs and piano pieces that Erkki Melartin (1875–1937) is chiefly remembered. Primarily a miniaturist, he was none the less drawn to the symphony, which he considered crucial in his output, completing six in all at much the same time as Sibelius's seven. The two recorded here exhibit the essential strengths and weaknesses of Melartin's large-scale music: big, portentous outer movements with striking ideas not always at ease within symphonic form, framing delightful, lyrical intermezzos. These central movements contain the best of this composer—there is no denying the exhilarating quality of the Fifth's final quadruple fugue, nor the grandeur of No. 6's peroration.

Strauss and Mahler stand behind No. 5 (1915) at over 30 minutes long an unusually large Sinfonia brevis, which is arguably the finest of all Melartin's symphonies. The Sixth (1925) was composed under the heady influence of Expressionism. Its oppressive atmosphere and dark hues make it seem a precursor of Allan Pettersson. Leonid Grin's firm direction allows the poetry of Melartin's invention the right amount of space to bloom, while the avoidance of over-emphasis in the heavyweight No. 6 is spot on (although the scherzo should have more bounce). Erkki Salmenhaara provides the excellent and fulsome notes to both discs. Devotees of Nielsen, Stenhammar and early Sibelius will find much to attract them. Recommended.

-- Gramophone [12/1994]