London Philharmonic Orchestra 2016/17

Sibelius The Swan of Tuonela
Walton Violin Concerto
Sibelius Symphony No. 6
Sibelius Symphony No. 7

Osmo Vänskä conductor
Tasmin Little violin

‘Other composers serve colourful cocktails’, said Jean Sibelius. ‘I serve pure cold water’. 

Not that there’s anything cold about the haunting Swan of Tuonela – or, for that matter, Walton’s glittering Italian fantasy of a violin concerto, played on this occasion by Tasmin Little. But there’s no mistaking the purity and freshness of the Finnish landscape as evoked in Sibelius’s Sixth Symphony – it’s some of the most serenely beautiful music he ever wrote. Osmo Vänskä has this music in his blood, and he ends the evening with the monumental Seventh Symphony: a life’s work, brought to completion in a single mighty gesture.