Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra

Orquesta Sinfónica de la Radio Finlandesa

Orkiestra Symfoniczna Radia Fińskiego

Orchestra Sinfonica della Radio Finlandese

The Finnish Radio Orchestra conducted by Duncan Ward presents a variety of works from across different periods, including a contemporary work by South African cellist Abel Selaocoe. This musical epic takes in the overture of Mozart's Magic Flute as well as the romanticism of Mendelssohn, South Afrtican spiritual fervour and the minimalism of Arvo Pärt.

Shortly after the Russian Revolution, Finland declared its independence on 6 December 1917. Every year on this National Day, the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra traditionally gives its annual Independence Day concert. The 2023 lineup festures star violinist Pekka Kuusisto playing a selection of great Finnish composers: Magnus Lindberg, Esa-Pekka Salonen and, of course, Jean Sibelius.

Independence Day Concert

Three eminent Finnish composers are on the programme for the annual Finnish Independence Day concert, featuring Pekka Kuusisto.

Born in Estonia in 1935, Arvo Pärt composed his Symphony No. 3 while in the throes of a creative crisis. To free himself from what he saw as the impetuous Western avant-garde while also escaping Soviet regime censorship, he turned to the music of the Middle Ages and immersed himself in Gregorian chant and pre-Renaissance vocal polyphony.

Arvo Pärt composed his Symphony No. 3 in 1971, a period when he was exploring medieval music.

Arvo Pärt: Symphony No3

Felix Mendelssohn (1809-1847) was deeply rooted in German Romanticism, appreciating those fairy tales and myths inhabited by the vision of untamed nature. His concert overture La Belle Mélusine was inspired by the medieval fairy character Mélusine. This half-princess, half-serpent marries a knight but forbids him from trying to see her in her true form.

Duncan Ward conducts the Finnish Radio Orchestra at this opening concert for Musiikkitalo in Helsinki.

Felix Mendelssohn: La Belle Melusine

Three chords punctuate the overture to this masonic opera by Mozart. The number three, highly symbolic for Freemasons, is a recurring theme in The Magic Flute: There are three attendants of the Queen of the Night and three boys in Sarastro's kingdom.

The famous three-chord overture from Mozart's Masonic opera, conducted by Duncan Ward.

Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra

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