...there is more than one way to approach Sibelius, and this composer, disregarded when concert life was in the throes of high modernism, reveals something new to each age. Consider the ongoing Sibelius symphony cycle from the young Santtu-Matias Rouvali, who has stirred up a good deal of excitement. On this, the second volume, he offers distinctive and exciting performances. In the Symphony No. 5 in E flat major, Op. 82, Rouvali follows in the footsteps not only of other Finns but of most of the great European conductors in this most popular of Sibelius' symphonies. However, his reading is intense and even thrilling, with maximum exploitation of the rhythmic tensions in the work resolved only at the massive hang-in-the-air conclusion. Both here and in the Symphony No. 3 in C major, Op. 52, Rouvali and the Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra, Rouvali avoids "cool" Scandinavian approaches, and he caps the whole program with the tone poem Pohjola's Daughter, Op. 49, one of the most purely Romantic works Sibelius ever wrote. This is intense Sibelius that has put some people off, but nobody can accuse Rouvali of playing it safe, and it demands attention.

-- AllMusic.com