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Finland Awakes!

BBC Symphony Orchestra/Oramo

,Barbican Hall
A picture of Guy Johnson holding a cello

Music from the young Sibelius to mark the centenary of Finnish Independence, ending with the First Symphony, a noble and magnificent symphonic debut.

To mark Finnish Independence Day – on December 6 1917, Finland ended its autonomy as a Grand Duchy within Russia and became a republic – the BBC SO’s Finnish Chief Conductor offers a programme by Finland’s greatest composer. Sibelius’s Press Celebrations Music contains what would later emerge as Finlandia which soon became a defiant unofficial national anthem. Guy Johnson plays two rarities for cello and orchestra, originally written in 1915 for church use, and which share the same opus number. The BBC SO’s Sibelius’s symphony cycle continues with the powerful First from 1899, a time when the Russian Emperor was flexing his muscles at the Finnish people, giving the music an almost political charge.

Tagged with: Classical music BBC Symphony Orchestra 2017–18 Celebrating Finland More...

Programme

Sibelius Press Celebrations Music (UK Premiere)
Cantique and Devotion
Symphony No 1

Performers

BBC Symphony Orchestra
Sakari Oramo conductor
Guy Johnston cello

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