Orchestra Sinfonica Nazionale della RAI, Robert Trevino
Ondine · ODE14772 · 63 minutes
Respighi wrote a lot of gorgeous postcards from Rome, but the Sinfonia drammatica is a different animal entirely — sprawling, brooding, almost defiantly unfashionable in its Straussian excess, and all the more fascinating for it. Robert Trevino and the RAI orchestra clearly believe in the piece rather than just tolerating it, and that conviction shows in how naturally the climaxes build instead of just arriving. Sixty-three minutes is a big ask for a work this obscure, but the brass alone in the Lento religioso make a strong case for why it deserves the attention.
Awards:
- Record Review — 13th June 2026 — Record of the Week
- Presto Recording of the Week — 5th June 2026
“The engineering captures plenty of detail… the brass make plenty of impact, thundering their oration in the Lento religioso… [Trevino]’s grasp of the symphony’s structure is firm and he…”
— Gramophone Magazine, July 2026
Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra, Jukka-Pekka Saraste
Ondine · ODE15252T · 3 hours 38 minutes
There’s something fitting about Saraste going back to Sibelius with the Helsinki Philharmonic, an orchestra that’s had this music in its bones since before he was born. What comes through across all seven symphonies isn’t showmanship but patience — the sense that these scores build their own weather systems and don’t need a conductor pushing the clouds along. Gramophone clearly heard the same thing, and three and a half hours in, you’ll understand why they’re already calling people back to it.
Awards:
- Gramophone Magazine — August 2026 — Editor’s Choice
“Saraste does not need to play to the gallery; Sibelius does that more than adequately…I will be returning to this set often, and I encourage all to do so, too.”
— Gramophone Magazine, August 2026
Helsinki Chamber Choir, Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra, Nicholas Collon
Ondine · ODE14912 · 62 minutes
What a smart way to frame a warhorse — pairing Holst’s cosmic tour with Väinö Raitio’s Moonlight on Jupiter means you get two very different Finnish-adjacent takes on planetary wonder in one sitting. Collon draws out the strangeness in Holst that gets smoothed over in more routine readings, letting Mars snarl and Neptune actually dissolve into that wordless choir rather than just fade out politely. The Finnish Radio Symphony’s woodwinds have a real glow to them here, and it makes total sense on a disc that’s clearly thinking hard about atmosphere rather than just spectacle.
“…memorably poised horn-playing and gorgeously liquid woodwind and harp textures… Collon and his Helsinki colleagues do the composer’s weird and wonderful inspiration absolutely proud.”
— Gramophone Magazine, July 2026
Latvian Radio Choir, Sigvards Klava
Ondine · ODE15052 · 73 minutes
Vasks writes choral music like he’s holding onto something fragile. Long, aching lines. Silence treated as its own kind of sound. Nobody does this repertoire like the Latvian Radio Choir. It’s their language, their landscape, and Klava knows exactly how much space to leave around each phrase so the grief and the tenderness both land. Seventy-three minutes is a lot to ask of a listener. But this is the kind of record that rewards one sitting, lights low, nothing else competing for your attention.
“Music, moreover, that inevitably speaks to the heart of the Latvian Radio Choir, which gives of its best under Sigvards Klava. With its spacious if focused sound and detailed notes from Olivier…”
— Gramophone Magazine, July 2026
