Concerts & tickets

According to recent statistics, Sibelius is one of the world's most-performed composers. In Italy, his name is linked to only few but significant compositions in his boundless catalogue. Therefore, even though he died in 1957, Sibelius is a composer still awaiting discovery, holding a great many surprises in store. One of these was the cantata Snöfrid based on texts by Viktor Rydberg, Sweden's greatest poet. A female figure (narrator) addresses her compatriots and a hero (Snöfrid), exhorting them to fight for freedom before glory, fame, and the pleasures of life. The epic and stormy tone dissolves into choral moments of limpid purity. Symphony no. 1 is also marked by great romantic fervor, and for this reason has been performed alongside those by Tchaikovsky or Borodin (but Sibelius stressed its proud and determined character, alien to the sentimentalism of his Russian peers). The Finn Sakari Oramo knows every secret of Sibelius's music. Between the nationalist tremblings and epic tones of the two works by Sibelius, Sakari Oramo and Emanuel Ax perform Beethoven's Piano Concerto no. 1: perfect classical form, and the clarity of a brilliant work that casts an eye on the time's great models.