´óÏó´«Ã½

Last month the ´óÏó´«Ã½ Symphony Orchestra’s Total Immersion day "Sibelius the Storyteller" ventured into the literary and cultural hinterland of one of the 20th century’s great symphonists. No genius creates in a vacuum, and while Sibelius’s seven symphonies are landmarks of 20th-century orchestral music, they have deep roots. Today, over four concerts, we venture into the forests (both real and legendary) that nourished Sibelius’s imagination: the words, the landscapes, the colleagues and the traditions that formed the bedrock on which he built his distinctive musical vision.

In this final concert, "Crossings, Creations and Immersion", we hear music and words - read by Ólafur Darri Ólafsson - inspired by Finnish legend and landscape. The ´óÏó´«Ã½ SO with its Finnish Chief Conductor Sakari Oramo and soprano Anu Komsi take us on a final journey into those forests of the far north. They begin in a blaze of light: the life-affirming dawn that concludes Night Ride and Sunrise. Komsi is the soloist in three more musical legends, including the astonishing Luonnotar – a Finnish creation-myth, retold in music of primal grandeur. And then, at the end, comes Tapiola – one of music’s timeless mysteries, as urgent now as the day it was conceived. Tapiola sings of the endless northern forests: primal, elemental, ‘brooding savage dreams’. And after its premiere in 1926, the composer fell silent - as if he had no more stories to tell.

Jean Sibelius Nightride and Sunrise
The Echo Nymph
Soluppgång (Sunrise)
Luonnotar
Tapiola

´óÏó´«Ã½ Symphony Orchestra
Sakari Oramo conductor
Ólafur Darri Ólafsson narrator

Recorded at the Barbican Concert Hall on 9 October.