“The platform camaraderie and red-hot applause at the end of Friday’s BBC Symphony Orchestra concert would have been impossible under some of the orchestra’s past chief conductors. Not so with its current boss, Sakari Oramo. After the blistering performance of Shostakovich’s Symphony No 10 the crowd roared and Oramo beamed like the sun.”

“Mahler’s Fifth Symphony took possession immediately, fixing our ears to the spot with its kaleidoscopic colours and jostling moods. Electricity surged in sequences of rage and jubilation, though Oramo’s smiling skill and rapport with his players shone even more in the scherzo’s quieter twists and the adagietto’s gently throbbing love song.”

“The BBCSO under the baton of Sakari Oramo captured all [Tchaikovsky’s FantasyOverture ​“Romeo and Juliet”] romance and violent passions with exquisite verve.”

“Oramo led a colourful but brisk and disciplined reading [Bartok Second Violin Concerto] from the orchestra, and all deserve credit for the riveting climax to the first movement, and for the elegant but never sentimental textures of the second. Suitably raucous brass energised the finale, the violin miraculously shining through the orchestral textures, even in the loudest tuttis. An impressive performance all round, demonstrating yet another outstanding facet of Ibragimova’s art.”

“Debussy in his own guise opened the concert in a masterly exposition by Oramo of the Prélude à l’après-midi d’un faune, in which every note, from the rapt opening flutes solo (…) was astutely positioned.”

“To Mahler’s potentially unwieldy, hugely ambitious vision of the great chain of being, Oramo brought vitality, wisdom and overarching cohesion.”

“Not only is Sakari Oramo utterly at home and in control in these two brilliant, at times startlingly variegated works, he draws them closer together than I would have previously thought possible…If you’ve the least interest in Nielsen, make space for this in your collection.” *****

“No conductor nails each symphony’s distinct character with such skill and humanity [as Oramo…his] bounding energy in the opening Allegro collerico is arresting, allied with a winning flexibility of tempo. Nielsen’s quirky shifts between duple and triple time are seamlessly handled.”

“Oramo is a master of cohesion… Nielsen’s control and purpose in his seeming anarchy are absolute, and so were Oramo’s: the perfect pairing.”

“Sakari Oramo’s cycle of Nielsen symphonies for the BIS label draws to a triumphant, blistering close with ​“The Four Temperaments” and ​“Sinfonia Semplice”…Oramo is totally in control, letting the panic of the first movement of the sixth take hold with alarming speed but also giving the orchestra space to breathe, as in the broad first movement of ​“The Four Temperaments”, allowing its rich, full-bodied sound to overwhelm us.”

“…What struck me about the performance was how Oramo brought out the subtle detail in the orchestration and how he revealed the work’s dark underbelly from the outset… It was clear from the outset that Sakari Oramo had the full measure of [Nielsen’s Symphony no. 5]. The first movement was ideally paced…Oramo certainly coaxed a fine virtuoso performance from the BBCSO…A very fine account of one of the greatest symphonies in the repertoire…the evening was rounded off by a very fine performance of Ravel’s Bolero…A fitting end then, to a fabulous five star evening.”