A strong sense of natural momentum was the chief characteristic of conductor Joseph Swensen's interpretation of Sibelius's Third Symphony, together with a clarity and underlying passion that pointed to Swensen's Scandinavian sensibilities - he is half-Norwegian and lives in Denmark. But, perhaps because Swensen cut the strings to classical proportions (only three desks of cellos and two of double basses), an overall balance that favoured the wind instruments too often detracted from Sibelius's organic connections.

Until recently, Swensen was the BBC National Orchestra of Wales's principal guest conductor, establishing a particular rapport with the strings. In Mahler's Fourth Symphony, now in full number, they gave him sweet, silken playing and responded instinctively to his fluid and expressive fluctuations of tempo. This work embraces a darker vision of the world, as well as of the paradise joyously described in the finale, a setting of the poem Das Himmlische Leben (The Heavenly Life) from the folk collection Des Knaben Wunderhorn (The Boy's Magic Horn). Swensen's strength was to underline the implicit logic and serenity of the slow movement's variations and to make its coda a radiant transition heralding the return of the sleighbells (by Austrian tradition associated with a child's soul going to heaven) from the symphony's opening. The strength of soprano Lisa Milne was to capture something of the elusive and slightly unnerving quality which is as much wisdom as childlike innocence.