CD review: Rattle's second Sibelius is opulent package of dour masterpieces

The symphonies of Jean Sibelius (born 150 years ago this year) form a universal and provincial narrative. From the darkly romantic, Tchaikovsky-inspired No. 1, to the warmly ecstatic No. 2, through the bumptious, ursine No. 3, the beige, forbidding No. 4 and the grand paean of nature that is No. 5, to the icy brilliance of No. 6 and thence to a pointillistic synthesis of all that came before in No. 7, the interplay of alienation and affirmation holds us rapt.