Composer

Join us at the Royal Festival Hall on Sunday, 10 November 2024, at 7:30 pm for an unforgettable evening as Esa-Pekka Salonen conducts a captivating program featuring the works of Sibelius and Lindberg. This concert marks a significant moment in the Philharmonia's Nordic Soundscapes series, showcasing the rich musical heritage of Finland.

The evening will commence with Lotta Wennäkoski's "Flounce," a piece known for its joyful and imaginative spirit, composed for the Last Night of the Proms in 2017. Following this, Lawrence Power, one of today's leading viola players, will give the UK premiere of Magnus Lindberg's new Viola Concerto, a testament to the enduring friendship and creative collaboration between Salonen and Lindberg since their student days.

The highlight of the concert will be Jean Sibelius's Symphony No. 1, a masterpiece that captures the vast Nordic landscapes through its sweeping melodies and the haunting opening clarinet solo, leading to the intense energy of the finale. This symphony is not only a favorite among classical music enthusiasts but also serves as an excellent introduction to Sibelius's distinctive musical voice for newcomers.

This event is part of the Nordic Soundscapes series, and attendees have the opportunity to enhance their experience with Nordic Soundscapes Passes, offering great seats for every London event in the series, along with exclusive perks like a series magazine signed by Santtu and an invitation to drinks on the opening night.

Tickets are priced between £10 and £70, with priority booking available for Friends of the Philharmonia. General booking opens at 10 am on Tuesday, 23 April. Don't miss this opportunity to witness a remarkable performance that bridges the past and present of Finnish music, conducted by the esteemed Esa-Pekka Salonen.

Salonen conducts Sibelius and Lindberg

Royal Festival Hall

The Philharmonia Orchestra’s former Principal Conductor returns to conduct three works by fellow Finns as part of the orchestra’s Nordic Soundscapes series.

Salonen Conducts Sibelius & Lindberg

Southbank Centre

John Storgårds and the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra

MediaCityUK

A slow musical procession leads us through the gate into one of Bruckner’s ‘cathedrals of sound’, his Fifth Symphony. This music is as spacious and reverential as a place of worship. Fear not, there are no hard pews to sit on here as Bruckner’s sound world is warm and enveloping. Sibelius also invites us into his world of Nordic impressionism with En Saga, based on Northern legends and myths. This symphonic poem evokes the rugged beauty and atmosphere of Finland with its sweeping vistas. Lotta Wennäkoski honours this in her own work Verdigris. Composers, she suggests, write new layers on music history, hence she immerses in Sibelius’s music in amidst her own, creating a patina, the blue-green verdigris of the title.

EPSG:4326

Nordic Noir

The Bridgewater Hall

The warmth of Brahms’ third symphony has made it a favourite of many concertgoers. His friend Clara Schumann wrote: “Each movement is a jewel! I could not tell you which I loved most.”  A century earlier, Carl Philip Emanuel Bach composed his emotional and imaginative flute concerto – complete with stormy, calm, angry, and joyous moods, with its dazzling melodies requiring breath-defying skills. Finnish composer Lotta Wennäkoski’s overture is an exciting exploration of musical buoyancy, rising and falling both in volume and intensity. 

Brahms' Symphony No. 3

Winspear Centre

Tonight's concert by NEC Philharmonia and Hugh Wolff includes Of Footprints and Light by Finnish composer Lotta Wennäkoski, Mendelssohn's "Scottish" Symphony and a concerto performed by the winner of the Concerto Competition.

NEC Philharmonia + Hugh Wolff: Wennäkoski, Mendelssohn

New England Conservatory

The Eufonie Festival aims to popularize the cultural heritage of most countries known today as Central and Eastern Europe: from the Balkans, through Romania and Austria, the Visegrad Group countries, Ukraine and Belarus, to the Baltic States.

BBC Symphony Orchestra: Eufonie Festival, Warsaw

National Philharmonic

A sultry flute, a shower of sparks, a flash of light and a sensuous, sumptuous wave of pure emotion. In the years before World War One, Debussy and Stravinsky transformed the way we listen: inventing musical colours that dazzled, startled and seduced. Debussy’s ravishing Prélude and Stravinsky’s Firebird open and close a concert filled with fantastic stories and sounds.

The Faun and the Firebird

Barbican Centre

Beginning as students at a summer music camp before they were even teenagers, the members of the Danish String Quartet have an extensive history of musical collaboration. For their third UMS appearance, they bring their Doppelgänger project, an ambitious four-year international commissioning project in which four composers create new works in response to a masterwork by Franz Schubert. In this program, they pair Schubert’s famous “Death and the Maiden” quartet with Pige (Danish for “girl”) — a new work by Finnish composer Lotta Wennäkoski, who has been praised for her mastery of color and musical textures.

Danish String Quartet: Doppelgänger

University of Michigan

When Mason Bates composed his Piano Concerto, he repeated a simple mantra to himself: <em>Let the soloist shine</em>. Bates could not have chosen a better partner for this SF Symphony Co-Commission and West Coast Premiere than the astoundingly dexterous pianist Daniil Trifonov. Led by Ruth Reinhardt in her SF Symphony debut, the program also includes Lotta Wennäkoski’s <em>Helsinki Variations</em> and Dvořák’s Symphony No. 5, a work beloved for its natural warmth, singing melodies, and beautiful pastoral scenes

Daniil Trifonov plays Mason Bates

Davies Symphony Hall

The dazzlingly gifted Danish String Quartet returns for its second Berkeley concert this season, pairing a Schubert string quartet with a newly commissioned work as part of it Doppelgänger project, a four-season initiative co-commissioned by Cal Performances. Schubert’s thrillin "Death and the Maiden" quartet, one of the pillars of chamber music repertoire, is matched here with its musical twin, a new quartet by Finnish composer Lotta Wennäkoski —“a composer with ideas and a distinctive way of voicing them” "The Guardian"—whose music combines a melodic sensibility with percussive techniques and timbres.

Chamber Music: Danish String Quartet

University of California, Berkeley

Graduate soloist Iveri Kekenadze, from the Malmö Academy of Music, performs Camille Saint-Saën's playful Piano Concerto No. 2 – a masterpiece that brings to life the entire tonal range of the piano.

Lotta Wennäkoski

Composer

Events

Upcoming events

Mar 13, 2025

Mendelssohn's femma · Malmö Symphony Orchestra

Past events

Nov 10, 2024

Salonen conducts Sibelius and Lindberg · Philharmonia Orchestra

Nov 10, 2024

Salonen Conducts Sibelius & Lindberg · Southbank Centre

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