NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchestra / Jukka-Pekka Saraste

Can you guess what »one of the greatest events« in the life of Jean Sibelius was, as he himself refers to it in his diary? The celebrated world premiere of one of his compositions? The birth of his children? No, it was the sight of 16 swans flying over Lake Tuusula near Sibelius’s house in the Finnish town of Järvenpää. Seeing them, the composer was inspired to write a soulful, expansive melody that he used in the last movement of his 5th Symphony. A perfect advocate for such Nordic music is Finnish conductor Jukka-Pekka Saraste. His soloist, Greek violinist Leonidas Kavakos, presents Shostakovich’s Violin Concerto No. 1. Kavakos’s homeland, Greece, in turn inspired Danish composer Carl Nielsen to write his »Helios Overture«: it describes the beauty of a sunrise over the Aegean Sea.