"Recommended: Norwegian mezzo-soprano Marianne Beate Kielland has tended to specialise in the baroque and early Romantic, but she also recorded and performed what we might call a lot of "Nordic" repertoire and has here turned her attention to eighteen of Sibelius' finest orchestral songs ... The songs are in themselves unfailingly melodic and easily assimilated. Kudos to the Czech conductor Petr Popelka, the soloists and the ensemble of the Norwegian Radio Orchestra for effortlessly encompassing the wide range of moods, textures and the sonorities here, from the lush to the spare ... This recital will open up a new world for many a Sibelius enthusiast unfamiliar with these lovely songs"

"These four cycles of Sibelius songs come from the 1890s and early 1900s. Like the contemporaneous First and Second Symphonies, a Romantic warmth pulsates from these rich, lyrical works. Mezzo Kielland balances purity and ardour perfectly"

"This neat compilation of orchestral songs comes from a bright-voiced Norwegian mezzo I have long admired ... exceptionally conducted by Petr Popelka, who points up the Nordic Noir in these gloomy poems ... Attractive singing, good musicianship and general sensitivity help make up for that, and create an album whose constituent parts might not beat others but do endear as a whole"

"Mezzo Marianne Beate Kielland dazzles in orchestral versions of Sibelius's songs ... Kielland's even tone, flexibility and brilliant sensitivity to the text make this a rewarding collection, the intensity and drama of each song powerful and impassioned"