Sibelius, Bartók and Ravel

Ravel’s Piano Concerto in G major is one of the most beloved piano works of the 20th century. He wrote the concerto after a tour in the United States, where he came into close contact with jazz and was particularly impressed by George Gershwin. The jazz elements are clearly present, while Ravel’s elegance and precision shape the music throughout. In the beautiful central movement, a calm, singing piano melody unfolds over a delicate orchestral accompaniment. The soloist is the acclaimed Turkish pianist Fazıl Say, who is also a composer.

While Ravel’s concerto evokes the modern city, Sibelius’s symphonic poem Tapiola leads us into a world of nature and imagination, inspired by the Finnish national epic Kalevala. With dense orchestral textures in constant transformation, Sibelius conjures a Nordic forest landscape where something ancient and mysterious seems to move in the darkness. In later life, Sibelius himself said that one can sense forest spirits and animals moving through the woods in the music. Tapiola was his last major orchestral work.

After the interval, we hear Bartók’s music for the ballet The Miraculous Mandarin, a story of desire, violence and obsession. Frenzied rhythms, sharp dissonances and explosive orchestral sonorities create a world in which love, eroticism and death appear closely intertwined. The Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra is led by Jukka-Pekka Saraste, Chief Conductor of the Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra.