Brave New World – Sibelius’s Second Symphony | London Symphony Orchestra

Bold and unconventional choices are there to be relished in music by Beethoven and Sibelius.

Sibelius compared writing his daring Second Symphony to putting together a broken mosaic. For a listener, it’s only possible to marvel as stunning musical patterns shape themselves out of fragments.

In Beethoven’s ‘Emperor’ Concerto, the piano makes an unexpected hero’s entrance with barely an introduction from the orchestra. But soon there’s a magnificent back and forth between soloist and ensemble, ending in a galloping finale.

Lotta Wennäkoski’s exquisite tone poem Of Footprints and Light quotes from an unfinished opera by the Finnish composer Ida Moberg, who studied with Sibelius.

The landscapes of Sibelius are familiar territory for Thomas Søndergård, and the LSO summons fresh air and sunshine. Leif Ove Andsnes brings immaculate style to Beethoven’s best loved piano concerto.