Philharmonia Orchestra / Johan Dalene / Ryan Bancroft

Dalene gives his special support to the music of North European composers such as Carl Nielsen. Nielsen belongs to the standard repertoire in his native Denmark and in the English-speaking world, but he is still too rarely heard in Germany. His Violin Concerto, Op. 33, with its bold panache is as much of a hit today as it was at the 1912 premiere.

Finnish composer Jean Sibelius took his inspiration from the world of the Scandinavian myths, preserved in ancient runes, and not published as a collection till the mid-19th century. The national hero Lemminkäinen, for example, a kind of Finnish Siegfried, inspired his suite of the same name. First performed in 1896, it is now one of the composer’s most popular works. The concert opens with Beethoven’s »Leonore« Overture; this was intended as a prelude to the composer’s sole opera, originally entitled »Leonore« before it achieved worldwide fame as »Fidelio«. Different versions of the opera gave rise to several overtures, which have remained in the repertoire as concert pieces.