Awards and reviews
Winner, Best Orchestral CD, MIDEM Classical Award 1998: Jón Leifs: Geysir (BIS).
Nominated, Classical CD of the Year, Icelandic Music Awards 1998: Jón Leifs: Geysir (BIS).
Winner, Classical CD of the Year, Icelandic Music Awards 2000: Sibelius: Finlandia (Naxos)
Winner, Classical CD of the Year, Icelandic Music Awards 2003: Jón Leifs: Baldr (BIS)
Nominated, Performer of the Year, Icelandic Music Awards 2004.
Nominated, Performer of the Year, Icelandic Music Awards 2005.
Nominated, Classical CD of the Year, Icelandic Music Awards 2008: Jón Leifs: Edda I (BIS)
Winner, DV Cultural Award, 2008
Nominated, Grammy Award for Best Orchestral Recording, 2009: Vincent d'Indy: Orchestral Works, vol. 1 (Chandos)
Gramophone Editor's Choice:
Sibelius: Finlandia and orchestral suites (Naxos)
Madetoja Symphonies (Chandos)
Vincent d'Indy: Orchestral Works vol. 2 (Chandos)
Concert tours abroad
1977 Faroe Islands
1981 Germany and Austria (incl. Vienna)
1985 France (inc. Grenoble and Lyon)
1987 Greenland
1990 Finland (incl. Helsinki), Sweden (Stockholm), Denmark (Copenhagen)
1994 Faroe Islands
1996 US (incl. Carnegie Hall, NY)
1996 Denmark (Copenhagen)
1997 Greenland
2000 Faroe Islands
2000 Canada and US (incl. Kennedy Center, Washington DC, Carnegie Hall, NY)
2003 Germany (incl. Cologne and Düsseldorf)
2007 Germany (incl. Cologne and Düsseldorf), Croatia (Zagreb), Austria (Vienna)
2007 Germany (Berlin, Munich)
Reviews
The Iceland Symphony Orchestra tours locally in Iceland at least once a year and has done so since 1956.
As we know from Naxos's recordings, there is little the Iceland Symphony Orchestra can't do...
Simon Trezise, Classic CD October 1999.
Thumpingly good performances from all concerned, captured in spectacular sound to match the landscape. Magnificent.
GSR, Gramophone, September 1999.
The Iceland Symphony, under the direction of Osmo Vanska, defied expectations with a sensational Carnegie Hall debut on Tuesday night... One began noticing the orchestra's fine qualities: smooth, burnished string tone, bright, focused windes and handsome, well-behaved brass, an excellent balance overall. What resulted was a performance of cold passion: tense, severe, fiercely expressive. It was staggeringly good.
Alex Ross, The New York Times, 29 February 1996.
This Icelandic Sibelius cycle under Petri Sakari is going very well. .. The Sixth Symphony is among the most satisfying we have had for some time. It is as thoughtful and as well shaped as some of the best.
Robert Layton, BBC Music Magazine, ***** (performance)
