BBC Philharmonic – Nordic Noir

John Storgårds conductor

Lotta Wennäkoski Verdigris
Sibelius  En Saga
Bruckner  Symphony No. 5 in B flat major

A slow musical procession leads us through the gate into one of Bruckner’s ‘cathedrals of sound’, his Fifth Symphony. This music is as spacious and reverential as a place of worship. Fear not, there are no hard pews to sit on here as Bruckner’s sound world is warm and enveloping. Sibelius also invites us into his world of Nordic impressionism with En Saga, based on Northern legends and myths. This symphonic poem evokes the rugged beauty and atmosphere of Finland with its sweeping vistas. Lotta Wennäkoski honours this in her own work Verdigris. Composers, she suggests, write new layers on music history, hence she immerses in Sibelius’s music in amidst her own, creating a patina, the blue-green verdigris of the title.