Concertgebouw Orchestra Essentials: Sibelius

Essentials

Especially for those who have little or no experience with symphonic music, there is Essentials. Get to know the masterpieces that you must have heard, performed by the Concertgebouw Orchestra and introduced by Thomas Vanderveken. At Essentials, a new generation of music lovers is welcomed and there is a pleasantly informal atmosphere.

Sibelius

Grand, epic, mysterious: Jean Sibelius' Fifth Symphony is a riddle. 'As if God had thrown mosaic tiles over the edge of the sky and asked me to figure out what the pattern was', that is how Sibelius experienced composing this symphony, inspired by the vast Finnish nature. The Fifth has a twilight character. The composer was struggling with a deep depression. But gradually the sun broke through and the music ends radiantly and sublimely.

Santtu Matias Rouvali

Sibelius's symphonies seem to have been made for Santtu-Matias Rouvali, a welcome guest with the Concertgebouw Orchestra since his debut in 2020. Like an inspired sculptor, the Finnish conductor sculpts changing shapes and colours from the orchestra: exactly what Sibelius' epic music needs.