Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra / Augustin Hadelich / Edward Gardner

Everything dances

Impressionist dance frenzy here, expressionist fairground frolics there: both Ravel’s »La Valse« and Stravinsky’s »Petrushka« were composed for the celebrated »Ballets Russes« dance company. At the beginning of the 20th century, the legendary Sergei Diaghilev had managed on several occasions in getting the finest composers of the day to write for his ballet company. With such great success that, while the exiled Russian company has long since left Paris, the music still has an important place on concert stages today. On the programme of the Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra, under the baton of its dapper British principal conductor Edward Gardner, Sibelius’ elegiac violin concerto is a haven of peace from the hurly-burly of dance. At the same time, it is a virtuosic wave from the Scandinavian sphere of sound that is so intrinsic to the orchestra’s DNA.