Oxford University Philharmonia

In celebration of the beloved Finnish composer Jean Sibelius' 150th birthday, the Oxford University Philharmonia performs a concert of two of his most monumental works, the Fifth and Seventh Symphonies.

The Fifth, with its famous swan theme, contains some of the composer's most joyful and uplifting music, while the painfully beautiful Seventh, his last symphony, unleashes gigantic energies with rapturous ambiguity. 2015 also marks birthdays for two other Nordic masters, the 150th for Denmark's Carl Nielsen and the 80th for Estonia's Arvo Pärt.

This concert will compliment Sibelius' music with Nielsen's witty and wistful Saga-Dream and Pärt's shattering Cantus in memoriam Benjamin Britten.