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Anna-Maria Helsing conducts her first concert as Principal Guest Conductor of the ´óÏó´«Ã½ Concert Orchestra. They are joined by leading Finnish soprano Anu Komsi for youthful songs by Debussy (written for his first love, Marguerite Vasnier) and Sibelius’s dramatic ±áö²õ³Ù°ì±¹Ã¤±ô±ô (Autumn Evening).

These pieces have been orchestrated by conductor Sakari Oramo. About arranging the Sibelius for string orchestra, Sakari says he ‘wanted to bring out the apocalyptic, existential feeling of the piece with dark, pregnant string sounds, contrasted by the sound of increasing and decreasing rain created by a pizzicato cloud.’ Of the Debussy songs, he mentions that the original piano parts ‘are very inviting for an orchestrator’, while ‘Debussy had a wonderful sense of the soprano voice, those brilliant figures and searing lines perfectly matched with the partly sensuous, partly sardonic poems.’

Often characterised as ‘half monk half rascal’, Poulenc wrote his Sinfonietta in 1947 to a commission from the ´óÏó´«Ã½â€™s Third Programme (the precursor to Radio 3). Typically fascinating and entertaining, it also carries a hint of mysticism – a mood explored more deeply in Sebastian Fagerlund’s Partita. With movements titled ‘Mysterious’, ‘Furious’ and ‘Intense’, it contrasts bells, gongs and drums – floating, rumbling, roaring – against a body of strings. Peruvian composer Jimmy López’s ‘four pop dances for orchestra’, Fiesta!, draws on Latin-American and Afro-Peruvian influences, as well as a nod to techno trance music. A new work by Finnish composer Heta Aho completes the programme.

This concert marks the end of ´óÏó´«Ã½ Radio 3’s residency at Southbank Centre and you can listen to it live on ´óÏó´«Ã½ Radio 3, or for 30 days on ´óÏó´«Ã½ Sounds.