MUSIC OF DIVAS

Simply the Best – Shallow – Like a Prayer – Believe – Skyfall:

Music of Divas by Diandra is more than a cover show. It’s Tina Turner’s irrepressible groove. It’s the exuberant glamour of Lady Gaga and Madonna. It’s the heartbreaking melodies of Cher and Adele in unprecedented versions.

John Williams, the most successful Hollywood composer ever, here makes a detour into the world of concert music. But this tuba concerto, written for the centenary of the Boston Pops Orchestra, has deep roots in the world of adventure films. In the words of Simon Wildman, who gave the premiere, ‘I’ve always thought this concerto was like a long Superman étude. The writing really seems to suggest flying, action punches, and soul-searching at the fortress of solitude.’ The soloist is the Lahti Symphony Orchestra’s own superman Harri Lidsle.

The young Johannes Brahms was horrified by the prediction that he would become a great symphonist in the spirit of Beethoven. It took almost a quarter of a century before he dared to realise these hopes – and finally to transcend them. Brahms’s fourth and final symphony is a model of music that stimulates the brain, whose logic provides a satisfying symmetry and feeds an insatiable hunger for overwhelming emotion.

Art imitates nature – or at least draws inspiration from it. Antonio Vivaldi, the most famous composer of the Italian baroque period, wrote more than 500 concertos, including almost 250 for violin and orchestra. The Four Seasons tower above the others; Vivaldi’s music, which mirrors his own sonnets in great detail, depicts the cycle of nature, from the blossoms of spring to the heat of midsummer, and from the autumn harvest festivals to the frosts of winter.

Almost a century after Vivaldi, Ludwig van Beethoven also transformed the emotional turmoil evoked by natural phenomena into music. In his Sixth Symphony, known as the ‘Pastoral’, Beethoven invites listeners to the outskirts of Vienna and the peace of the countryside. There, the ambience is enhanced by a rushing brook, dancing peasants, rumbling storm clouds and the song of shepherds after a storm.

The three works in this concert were written in the late 19th century and less than 20 years apart, during the most flourishing decades of Romanticism. In César Franck’s symphonic poem a nobleman, defying the Sunday regulations, is besieged by demons during his hunt – the hunter becomes the hunted. Pyotr Tchaikovsky’s last work is not only the most emotive symphony of all time, but also the composer’s poignant farewell to life. British pianist Sir Stephen Hough, renowned for his elegant interpretations, takes on Antonín Dvořák’s heroic melodies.

Okko Kamu, who began his career as a phenomenally talented violinist, burst onto the world scene in 1969 when he won the first Herbert von Karajan Competition in Berlin. Since then, he has appeared with almost every top orchestra and opera company in the world. Kamu crowned his tenure as principal conductor of the Lahti Symphony Orchestra with a recording of the complete Sibelius symphonies.

This spring Kamu celebrates his 80th birthday with his former orchestra. In his birthday concert he will focus on the most important landmarks of his career, Sibelius’s mystical youthful tone poem En saga and the Seventh Symphony, a testament to symphonic form that ends in a serene evening twilight.

Ossi Tanner, who is rapidly rising to the forefront of Finnish pianists, is already a familiar face as a soloist with the Lahti Symphony Orchestra. Here he performs Pyotr Tchaikovsky’s First Piano Concerto, the brightest jewel in the crown of romantic piano literature.

In January 2023 Masaaki Suzuki impressed the Lahti audience with his performance of Johannes Brahms’s German Requiem. The Japanese conductor now returns to Lahti with an emotional programme that reaches for the heights.

Johann Sebastian Bach’s Orchestral Suite No. 3 is secular music, but it too was written ‘Soli Deo Gloria’, to the glory of God alone. One of the most famous movements in music, the Air is just one of many highlights in this suite.

Joseph Haydn, who composed over a hundred symphonies, amused his audiences with his musical jokes. But not always: his Symphony No. 44 in E minor was so poignant and tempestuous that it had to be given the additional title ‘Trauer’ (Mourning), as a content warning. Symphony No. 5 in D major is Felix Mendelssohn’s most profound work in this genre. Written for the 300th anniversary of the Reformation, the work reflects the composer’s rare talent for mature, devotional melodies even though he was only 20 when he wrote it.

With atmospheric crackling vinyl, floating snowflakes and a roaring fire, it’s time to indulge in nostalgia. American jazz royalty Ella Fitzgerald and Frank Sinatra brought a swinging Christmas to every home with their classic albums. The velvety sounds of Broadway are also brought to the Sibelius Hall by the British singers Emma Smith and Atila Huseyin and the Lahti Symphony Orchestra conducted by Jules Buckley.

Mamma Mia! Here we go again? Yes, the Lahti Symphony Orchestra and Rajaton bring Abba’s favourite songs to the Sibelius Hall once again. The symphonic tribute to Abba by Finland’s most popular vocal ensemble, Rajaton, has already achieved classic status. The concert will feature a host of unforgettable Abba songs, including Knowing Me, Knowing You, Gimme! Gimme! Gimme! and of course Waterloo, the Eurovision Song Contest winner that launched the Swedish band’s worldwide success in 1974.