Thursday 25.09.2025 at 18.30
Sibelius Hall
JOHN ADAMS, conductor
NORA NISKANEN, clarinet
Claude Debussy: Rhapsody for clarinet and orchestra
John Adams: Frenzy (first performance in the Nordic countries)
Gabriela Smith: Tumblebird Contrails
Claude Debussy: La Mer
Pre-concert talk at 5:30 pm: Minna Lindgren
Duration 2h, inc. 20 min intermission
Tickets: 39-15 € (adults) / 35–15 € (OAPs) / 25–15 € (children, students, unemployed)
The legendary American composer John Adams returns as guest conductor of the Lahti Symphony Orchestra after a four-year break. This time Adams will guide the audience along a fast lane into the subconscious; uncontrolled enthusiasm and the exhilaration of the moment are interspersed with feelings of rest and peace.
Adams’s recent orchestral extravaganza, Frenzy, is like an 18-minute mini-symphony, pulsing to the beat of the flood of information that has hijacked our powers of concentration. A different reality is represented by Gabriela Smith’s Tumblebird Contrails, a snapshot of maritime serenity in which the smallness of man meets the grandeur of the forces of nature.
Claude Debussy’s ethereal style defined the direction of French music at the turn of the last century. His international breakthrough came with La Mer, written in 1905, a symphonic swell and a classic of Impressionist music, with all the colours of the orchestra shimmering in its foaming waves.