Season opening!

The tone poem Kullervo is Jean Sibelius’ first orchestral work. This grandiose musical epic has the hopelessly tragic Kullervo at the centre from the Finnish national epic, the Kalevala. In spring 1891 Sibelius was in Vienna to study, and he had the first ideas for Kullervo there, at his student residence.

But his teachers were not enthusiastic about the first movements of Kullervo, which was perceived as “barbaric and raw”. Which is not an entirely erroneous description. It was the Finnish side of Sibelius simmering beneath the surface. In the late nineteenth century, he had travelled to Karelia with friends who collected rune poems. A brand new world opened itself up to Sibelius. And the same is the case in the magnificent Kullervo, which spans from animalistic primitivism to sophisticated impressions from Vienna.

The concert begins with Tobias Broström’s feverishly intense Transit Underground, a concert opener for orchestra which, just like Sibelius’ Kullervo, truly sparks the imagination. But here, the subject is the vibrant life of the big city rather than Sibelius’ musical fantasies.

Konserthuset Play!
Sibelius himself directed the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra at the world premiere in 1924 of Symphony No. 7 at Konserthuset Stockholm. In this concert video, we will hear Sibelius’ fellow countryman and Chief Conductor of the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra, Sakari Oramo, in a magnificent interpretation of this epic piece. Listen