Thursday, 19:00 on BBC Radio 3 Minnesota Orchestra/Vänskä

[Seán]

Now I will get a chance to hear the Minnesota under Vänskä's direction, it might even help me to decide on their Beethoven cycle.

Osmo Vänskä conducts the Minnesota Orchestra in Sibelius' Karelia Suite
and Kullervo, based on a dark and bitter tale from the Finnish epic, the Kalevala.

Sibelius wrote the Karelia Suite originally for a student association in the Karelian city of Viipuri for music to accompany a series of tableaux depicting important moments in Karelia's history. Karelia itself was one of one of the centres of Finnish nationalism and it was from Karelian folk sources that the tales of the Kalevala were gathered.

Kullervo was the first of Sibelius' works to draw on that epic and he chose a dark and bitter tale. As a young man, Kullervo suffers the slaughter of his family and is trapped in a life of difficulty and poverty. One day he encounters a young woman in a sleigh and attempts to seduce her. Repeatedly rebuffed, he eventually ravishes her and only then discovers that she is his long lost sister. Overcome with guilt, Kullervo heads off to redeem himself.

Sibelius: Suite from Karelia
Sibelius: Kullervo

Päivi Nisula, soprano
Hannu Niemelä, baritone
YL Male Voice Choir
Minnesota Orchestra
Osmo Vänskä, conductor

Followed by a selection of Sibelius's smaller works.

[Seán]

I enjoyed that!

[fergus]

I got to listen too Seán and I also enjoyed it.