RUNIC SINGING

The Lahti Symphony Orchestra’s 25th International Sibelius Festival will take place at the Sibelius Hall in Lahti from 29 to 31 August 2024, crowning the four-year term as the festival’s artistic director of Dalia Stasevska, the Lahti Symphony Orchestra’s principal conductor. The festival will feature all seven of Sibelius’s symphonies and Luonnotar under her baton.

The Lahti Symphony Orchestra will open the festival on Thursday 29 August with Symphonies Nos 1 and 2, while the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra’s guest concert on Friday 30 August will include Symphonies Nos 3 and 5 and Luonnotar, with the South African soprano Golda Schultz as soloist – her first appearance in Lahti. The final concert on Saturday 31 August will feature Symphonies Nos 4, 6 and 7. As usual, all the orchestral concerts will be preceded by a pre-concert talk.

The orchestral concerts will be complemented by a narrative runic singing concert by the Pajolaine Folk Song Duo on Friday and a chamber music concert on Saturday afternoon, in which the legendary actress Seela Sella will read Aino Sibelius’s letters and Vilina Rainisto will perform a selection of Sibelius’s piano music.