Hi-Res Downloads

96kHz & 192kHz/24-bit, FLAC*; Linn CKD572 (supplied by www.linnrecords.com)

Sibelius’s First Symphony has long attracted hi-fi enthusiasts with landmark recordings by Collins, Maazel, and Vänskä that showed off your system – not least in the exciting scherzo with its textural contrasts. The Sixth, by contrast, was his most austere symphony, described by the composer as offering ‘pure cold spring water’. This new recording certainly fits that description with its clarity and judicious tempi. No 1 is even finer with a wonderful opening clarinet solo, pp, that raises great expectations for what follows – a performance that’s absorbing right through. This Dec ’14 Cardiff pairing, from BBC Hoddinott Hall, is Søndergård’s second coupling in Linn’s cycle (we reviewed Nos 2 and 7 here). It’s not the most sumptuous of orchestras but detail is explicit and the acoustic warm and generous. CB

Sound Quality: 75%

Hi-Fi News Lab Report

Available in 192kHz and 96kHz guises, the latter is a sharply downsampled rendering, though mercifully free of the severe sampling distortion seen with Linn’s Stravinsky, The Soldier’s Tale. One spurious tone at 20kHz. PM