Legends of the North
Bax Tintagel
Grieg Piano Concerto
Sibelius Suite, Belshazzar’s Feast
Sibelius Symphony No. 5
Osmo Vänskä conductor
Jan Lisiecki piano
High above the Atlantic breakers, the clifftop castle of Tintagel is the stuff of legend, and when Arnold Bax saw it he let his imagination soar. Tonight’s concert begins with some of the most passionately romantic music ever written by a British composer and ends with Jean Sibelius gazing at a flight of swans in the sunset: the inspiration for his Fifth Symphony, and one of the simplest – but greatest – melodies ever written for orchestra. Finnish conductor Osmo Vänskä is simply unequalled in Sibelius, and the young Canadian pianist Jan Lisiecki has something marvellously fresh to say about Grieg’s much-loved concerto, too.
