BBC Philharmonic Orchestra

Programme:

Sibelius - Symphony No. 1
Sibelius - Symphony No. 5

Beginning with the romantic First Symphony: big tunes, big feelings and sweeping drama, set amidst the twilight colours of Finnish legend. Fifteen years later, and the skies have cleared. Sibelius’ magnificent Fifth Symphony opens with a glowing sunrise and ends with a vision inspired by a flight of swans and one of the simplest and greatest melodies ever written. Once heard, never forgotten.

The symphonies of Jean Sibelius are landmarks of 20th Century music. Rooted in the pride, nature and folklore of his native Finland, Sibelius wrestled personal demons and the turmoil of the twentieth century to forge seven masterpieces that redefined the symphony.

With their soaring melodies, passionate emotions and majestic scale, they are as fresh, as powerful and as stirring as the Northern landscape itself