NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchestra / Tabita Berglund

Welcome, Tabita Berglund!

She champions the music of her Scandinavian homeland with passion: the Norwegian conductor Tabita Berglund. At just 36 years of age, she has already conducted many of the world’s leading international orchestras – yet she has not previously appeared with the NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchestra. As the newly appointed Principal Guest Conductor of the Dresden Philharmonic, Berglund now makes her Hamburg debut, presenting what is arguably Finland’s greatest symphonic hit: Jean Sibelius’s Symphony No. 2. »Like a river from small streams«, as the composer once described his organic compositional technique, this work grows from a simple three-note motif, one theme unfolding after another until it culminates in the broad melodic surge of the triumphant finale. Immediately after its premiere in 1902, the piece became a model for many other Scandinavian composers and to this day, no other Sibelius symphony has surpassed the popularity of this Second, which so brilliantly mediates between Romantic tradition and innovation.