Ashkenazy Sibelius Series

The pianist and conductor Vladimir Ashkenazy has long championed the Finnish composer, Jean Sibelius. He has recorded all seven symphonies, the tone poems and violin concerto for Decca with the Philharmonia Orchestra, and together they will perform a series of three concerts at the Royal Festival Hall to mark the 150th anniversary of the composer’s birth.
The concerts feature some of the composer’s best known works - the patriotic Finlandia, the Second and Fifth Symphonies with their catchy melodies and rousing finales, and the hugely popular Violin Concerto.
The symphonies, in particular, are a colossus in the orchestral repertoire, and span a range of musical styles - from the early classical and romantic, with echoes of Tchaikovsky and Bruckner, to the more innovative and avant-garde of his later works.
In all his music, Sibelius evokes the stark beauty of the Finnish landscape, with its pine forests and frozen vistas, as well as the nationalistic pride of the Finnish people, who fought a long struggle for independence against Tsarist Russia.
Ashkenazy is joined in each concert by a soloist - the Russian violinist, Vadim Repin, the Finnish soprano, Helena Juntunen, who sings the Luonnotar tone poem, and the young Russian pianist, Daniil Trifonov - the winner of the Tchaikovsky, Rubinstein and Chopin piano competitions - for the Rachmaninov 3rd piano concerto.
Sibelius wrote that 'music is like a beautiful mosaic which God has put together. He takes all the pieces in his hand, throws them into the world, and we have to recreate the picture from the pieces.' This series is a great opportunity to experience the magical world that Sibelius created through his music.