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"If you are sympathetic to large-scale Shostakovich (in works like the Eighth and Eleventh Symphonies), you will probably enjoy this CD as much as I did, although in the Third Symphony, as in the Second, I wonder whether he doesn't overwork his material just that bit too much."

"His handling of Rachmaninov's barnstorming First Sonata and the contrasting delicacies of Tchaikovsky's suite The Seasons (a movement a month) brings them up as fresh as daisies: the Rachmaninov has a fiery urgency and the Tchaikovsky a buoyant poise which are exhilarating."

The doctoral dissertations in music submitted in Finland in 2005-2006 are marked by two features: the topics are heterogeneous and the approach is multidisciplinary, ranging from the sonic environment and the music-making software of video games right across to Sibelius.

"When I first picked up this CD, I thought that here was yet another Bach recital, the sort of run-of-the-mill release you have to expect to deal with as part of a reviewer's life. But a closer look revealed something far from the ordinary: Jan Lehtola has chosen his programme very cleverly from other composers' transcriptions of Bach, three of the six here being by Oskar Merikanto, three of whose Bach transcriptions were published in his lifetime; these three are unpublished."

Why have HIM and Hanoi Rocks been the only Finnish bands to make it in America? Sami Valkonen, a music industry veteran involved with rock bands on both sides of the Atlantic, debates the factors that make up a success story on the American market.

In the summer of 1998, Americans watched the U.S. House of Representatives debate a proposal to eliminate all national arts funding - contentious issue that was wrapped up in the "controversial" art such funding supported as well as questions over the very idea of federal funding of the arts. Meanwhile, news reports began to tell how the government of Finland had an advanced system of supporting music through its school curriculum.

Finland's music education has succeeded in combining the best features of the old Russian and Hungarian schools with the principles of the Nordic welfare state and democracy. Establishing a good relationship with music has become the basis of the new teaching methods. The audible result - quality - nevertheless continues to occupy a significant role.

Between the mid 1970s and the early 1990s Professor Jorma Panula and his students made the Finnish training for conductors both widely known and highly acclaimed. But where did it all begin - and what has happened since?

Singing, playing games, listening, exercise, and playing instruments - these are the core activities of Finland's many music playschools. The schools are bustling with activity, for they have become very popular in recent years. Finland is a real land of music playschools.