Pekka Kuusisto plays Sibelius

The music

• George Benjamin Concerto for Orchestra (17’)
Sibelius Violin Concerto (31’) Listen
Sibelius The Swan of Tuonela (10’) Listen
Tippett Symphony No. 4 (32’) Listen

The performers

• Edward Gardner conductor*
• Pekka Kuusisto violin

Experience music at its most original and most vital.

Life, death, and everything in between. On a black river, a swan sings a deathless lament. High above a frozen landscape, a violin swoops and soars. And a whole orchestra breathes as one, as Michael Tippett grows a living, feeling symphony from the tiniest of cells. This is music at its most original and its most vital, and Edward Gardner begins with Sir George Benjamin’s brilliant homage to an old friend, before he’s joined by violinist Pekka Kuusisto in Sibelius’s Concerto. ‘I grew up with the idea that playing the violin was about being spontaneous’, says Kuusisto: no wonder things catch fire when he’s around.

*Edward Gardner’s position with the LPO is generously supported by Aud Jebsen.