Celebrations for Sibelius’s 150th anniversary continue with a complete symphony cycle, launched by the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra and its new Chief Conductor Designate, Thomas Dausgaard.

The First Symphony is prefaced by the nationalistic tone-poem Finlandia, its singing central melody composed with an ear to mass appeal as well as to political protest. The First Symphony is no apprentice work; although drawing on the legacy of Tchaikovsky and Brahms, Sibelius created something distinctively and evocatively Nordic.

Still more sophisticated is the Second, often heard as a musical shout of grief and rage at Russian oppression.

Sibelius
Finlandia 8’

Symphony No. 1 in E minor 39’

interval

Symphony No. 2 in D major 43’

BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra
Thomas Dausgaard conductor