Jarvi combines explosive power and spectacular spontaneity in Stravinsky's ballet score, depicting a pagan sacrificial rite in which a young girl dances herself to death. The musicians' playing is simply breathtaking, from the sinuous opening bassoon solo (William Winstead) to the hair-raising "Sacrificial Dance," with timpani that punctuates like gunshots.

Part I, Adoration of the Earth, is hypnotic for its buildup of tension and mystery. Strings crunch into their instruments, winds bubble underneath and the brass erupts with brutal force. The frenzied "Dance of the Earth" unfolds like so many explosions.

Part II, The Sacrifice, begins with such eerie mystery, it makes your hair stand on end. Jarvi's relentless drive makes this Rite of Spring one of the most red-blooded on record, and the Telarc sound is larger-than-life.

Nielsen's Symphony No. 5 complements with a different kind of mystery and hypnotic power. The Danish composer was inspired by World War I, and its unsettling mixture of beauty and violence makes it a wartime landscape like no other.

The first movement is colored by an obsessive snare drum (William Platt), trumpet calls and brass chorales. Jarvi's immense swell of tension dissolves into one of the most sublime moments in all of music, as the strings soar magnificently, and a clarinet solo (Richard Hawley) dies away against a distant snare drum.

Brutal gestures make way to strikingly lyrical moments, such as the slow Andante, a yearning hymn in the strings. The finale is grandiose and life-affirming, with the brass blazing away spectacularly. Jarvi brings out the drama in this music, and his musicians bring it to life with thrilling precision.

E-mail: jgelfand@enquirer.com