Essentials: Sibelius’ Symphony No. 5 by Sibelius, Nuo (2025/2025), Dirigentas Santtu-Matias Rouvali, Het Concertgebouw, Amsterdam, Netherlands

The Essentials series introduces you to the masterpieces you will be happy to know, performed by the world-famous Concertgebouw Orchestra and complete with a lively introduction by the incomparable Thomas Vanderveken. At Essentials we welcome a new generation of music lovers, and the concerts typically have a pleasant informal atmosphere. Grand, epic, mysterious: Jean Sibelius’s Symphony No. 5 is an enigma. ‘It was as if God the Father was throwing pieces of mosaic from the edge of heaven and asking me to figure out what the pattern was,’ wrote Sibelius of composing the symphony, inspired by the vast natural landscapes of Finland. The Fifth is sombre in character, the composer having suffered from deep depression. But the sun gradually broke through, and the music culminates in a radiant and sublime ending. Sibelius’s symphonies fit Santtu-Matias Rouvali like a glove, and he has been a welcome guest with the Concertgebouw Orchestra since his first appearance in 2020. Like a passionate sculptor, the Finnish conductor moulds the orchestra in changeable shapes and colours – just what Sibelius’s epic music calls for. Essentials starts at 9 p.m. with an imaginative introduction to the programme (in Dutch).