Anyway, this evening's live concert at seven features Vänskä conducting the LPO in a performance of music by Sibelius:
Osmo Vänskä and the LPO continue their cycle of symphonies and other works by Jean Sibelius.
Compelling despite its largely brooding and desolate character, Sibelius's Fourth Symphony opens with an ice-cold 'tritone', the sound that traditionally stood for ominous foreboding in western music and was regarded in earlier centuries as "diabolic". The monumental Fifth Symphony, however, is a heroic struggle towards affirmation. Glimpsing a flock of sixteen swans taking flight over his Järvenpää villa, Sibelius discovered the joy of life once more. He thrust the swans' soaring, graceful ascent into the final movement of the Fifth.
Sibelius Luonnotar (Tone poem for soprano and orchestra)
Sibelius Symphony 4
Sibelius Symphony 5
Helena Juntunen soprano
Osmo Vänskä conductor
Followed by recent performances by the students of the Sibelius Academy, Finland, including music by Mozart, played by Juho Pohjonen, piano.
