BAX & BRAHMS

Einojuhani Rautavaara’s Second Symphony was written shortly after he graduated from the Sibelius Academy. Despite its name, Sinfonia intima is anything but intimate in the modern sense of the word; intense confrontations and individual emotions burn with great intensity on a small orchestra.

Paul Hindemith constructed his personal style on the foundations of neoclassicism and early modernism. The rarely heard Nobilissima Visione tells the life story of St Francis of Assisi with the evocative power of wordless music.

Johannes Brahms made the impossible possible, writing a Second Piano Concerto that is even more massive than its predecessor, and surpassing all the soloist demands of the time. Alessio Bax, who has performed as a soloist with both the New York and London Philharmonic Orchestras and won the prestigious Leeds Piano Competition in 2000, here makes a spectacular debut in Lahti.