Bancroft & Persson by Adès, Sibelius, Berlioz, No (2023/2023), Diriģents Ryan Bancroft, Espoo Cultural Centre (Espoon kulttuurikeskus), Espoo, Finland

The English are a seafaring people. British composer Thomas Adès draws on sea shanties to create a surprising and salty polyphonic texture. Berlioz’s La mort de Cléopâtre is a majestic farewell where the Queen of Egypt, famed for her beauty, takes her own life after being betrayed by the Romans. Miah Persson, honoured with the title of Court Singer in her native Sweden, has grown into this role through her interpretations of multiple contemporary and Baroque works. Concluding the programme, Sibelius’s Fifth Symphony is a masterpiece of motif processing and structural control where everything is geared towards a process of continuous growth.