Crossings, Creations, and Immersions by Sibelius, De la (2022/2022), Dirijor Sakari Oramo, Barbican Centre, London, United Kingdom

Sibelius’s Tapiola sings of the endless northern forests: primal, elemental, “brooding savage dreams”. And after its premiere in 1926, the composer fell silent - as if he had no more stories to tell. At the end of a day of total immersion in the world of Sibelius the storyteller, Sakari Oramo and soprano Anu Komsi take us on a final journey into the forests of the far north. They begin, though, in a blaze of light: the life-affirming dawn that concludes Night Ride and Sunrise. Komsi is the soloist in three more musical legends, including the astonishing Luonnotar – a Finnish creation-myth, retold in music of primal grandeur. We are also treated to readings by Icelandic-American actor Ólafur Darri Ólafsson. And then, at the end, comes Tapiola – one of music’s timeless mysteries, as urgent now as the day it was conceived.