Dvořák - Symphony No 9; Sibelius: Finlandia

The Guardian 80

Chineke! Orchestra/Edusei
(Signum)

Chineke! Orchestra doesn’t hang about. Just two years old, the black and minority-ethnic ensemble debuts at the Proms on 30 August – the youngest orchestra to make it into the programme – and has just released its first recording. The choice of repertoire is symbolic: themes in Dvořák’s symphony From the New World were inspired by African American and Sioux Indian music; Sibelius’s Finlandia became an anthem of small-nation identity struggle (including Biafra during its civil war). But the symbolism stops there, because this playing stands for itself. Kevin John Edusei conducts – neat and direct, with a fine sense of when to push and when to linger. Although the ensemble sound is still taking shape (these things take years to percolate) what is missing in depth and burnish is compensated for in care and dynamism, in the lissom quality of quiet passages, in the tasteful restraint that keeps Finlandia unsentimental and gives the Dvořák a taut, explosive energy.