Who better to bring this year鈥檚 cycle of Sibelius symphonies to a close than Finnish conductor Osmo V盲nsk盲, with one exceptional cycle already completed on disc and another currently under way. 鈥楾hese symphonies of mine are more confessions of faith than are my other works,鈥� wrote Sibelius, but the later symphonies were hard-won confessions in which the composer鈥檚 creativity struggled with self-doubt and hostile critics. The results, however, are exceptional, from the soaring horn-led 鈥楽wan Hymn鈥� of the Fifth to the innocent beauty of the Sixth to the single-movement Seventh, with its total symphonic unity and an ending that has been called 鈥榯he grandest celebration of C major there ever was鈥�.