Anna, Sibelius, and Tchaikovsky

For the ISO's final concert in Eldborg Hall before going on tour in Great Britain, it can be said that comic forces are being released. The first half of the programme features Anna Thorvaldsdóttir's highly successful METACOSMOS, which has been performed by many of the world's leading orchestras, followed by Jean Sibelius' unusual masterpiece Luonnotar, written to a text from the Kalevala, a Finnish epic poem about the creation of the Earth. The goddess Luonnotar descends from the realm of the gods and creates the Earth and the heavens.

The vocal soloist, Finnish soprano Anu Komsi, has been widely praised for her beautiful voice, phenomenal technique, and original interpretation ranging from the Classical to the contemporary and back again. The programme opens with Voice Verser, a concerto for coloratura soprano and orchestra, written for Komsi by Finnish composer Jukka Tiensuu. The piece is a song without words, an ode to the human voice and its potential, featuring musical language that is at once original, edgy, and full of humour.

The programme concludes with Tchaikovsky's iconic Symphony no. 5, written at the pinnacle of his career, shortly before he began on his ballet Sleeping Beauty. “Tchaik Five” has entranced music lovers ever since it was first performed. Even Johannes Brahms, generally not one of Tchaikovsky's greatest fans, had to admit upon hearing his fellow composer conduct the symphony in Hamburg in 1889 that it was an outstanding piece of work.