Lahti SO’s tour in the USA got a great reception both from the press and audience

Lahti Symphony Orchestra was on tour in the USA with its Chief Conductor Osmo Vänskä in January. The number of audience in the four concerts of the tour was altogether almost 8.000 persons, and all concerts got a great reception from both the press and audience.

Critic Allan Kozinn from the New York Times reviews on 1 February 2005 the concert at the Avery Fisher Hall (New York) and says that Osmo Vänskä is one of the few conductors ‘with something fresh and exciting to say’. ‘Mr. Vanska is a graceful conductor whose gestures seem to communicate his ideas directly and energetically’, tells Kozinn and continues: ’That was certainly the case in the Sibelius works.’ About the interpretation of the Pohjola’s Daughter by Sibelius Kozinn says that the performance ‘showed off the nimbleness of the orchestra’s strings and woodwinds and the robustness of its brass’. As an example of Vänskä’s careful detailing Kozinn uses the finale of Sibelius’s second symphony in which the orchestra’s textures created an illusion of ‘a windswept quality’ more dramatically than usual.

The Star Tribune’s (published in Minneapolis) critic Michael Anthony’s review on the concert in Minneapolis is headed: ‘Sibelius rising: Under Vänskä, Lahti does it right.’ Anthony writes that ‘in an age when the world’s orchestras sound more and more alike, the Lahti Symphony, of which Vänskä has been chief conductor since 1988, has managed to develop its own sound’. The readings of the Sibelius’s symphonies Anthony describes as ‘quite remarkable’ and continues: ‘If there is loneliness, perhaps even despai, in this music, Vänskä isn’t afraid of it. He takes his time with it, lets it breathe, and this fine orchestra was with him every step of the way.’ About Sibelius’s Finlandia – which was played as the third encore and got an ecstatic reception from the audience – Anthony writes: ‘Forever may that noble piece be played with the kind of fervor that the musicians of Lahti played it Tuesday night, performing as if they themselves, each and every one of them, were striking a blow against tyranny. Every concert should end that way.’

Also the Pioneer Press (published in St. Paul) reviewed on 26 January 2005 the concert in Minneapolis. Music critic Rob Hubbard writes that ‘the orchestra provided ample evidence of its expertise with the works of Jean Sibelius’ and that the second and third symphony ‘were played with all of the depth of emotion and understanding that one would expect from a group so well versed in his [Sibelius’s] oeuvre’. Hubbard points out especially the large spectrum of dynamics provided by the orchestra: ‘It’s been some time since pianissimos so quiet have emanated from the Orchestra Hall stage, bringing the bold blasts of brass into even starker relief. And there’s a sadness in the strings that lends a wistful edge to even the most exhilaratingly beautiful melody.’ According to Hubbard, Finlandia ‘placed a thrilling exclamation mark on a triumphant night for Vänskä’.

There was a review ‘Orchestra delivers super Sibelius’ on the Toledo concert in the Toledo Blade on 27 January 2005, written by Steven Cornelius. He says that that the Lahti Symphony ‘performs with the sophistication and confidence of America’s major ensembles’ and that in the concert ‘both artistic and emotional exuberance found full expression’. Cornelius writes that ‘the energy was infectious’ and that throughout the concert ‘there was a sense that every gesture was animated by musical imagination and story telling’. ‘It was a wonder to hear’, Cornelius summarizes.


The Lahti Symphony orchestra, conducted by its Chief Conductor Osmo Vänskä, had a tour in the USA on 23-31 January 2005. The tour got a lot of attention in the American press in advance, and e.g. the leading city guide of New York, Time Out recommended the concert at the Avery Fisher Hall and it was mentioned in the Don’t miss! list. Also e.g. the New York Times, New Yorker and New York Magazine recommended the concert in advance. The tour consisted of four concerts, first of which was in the home hall of the Minnesota Orchestra, the Orchestra Hall in Minneapolis on 25 January. The last concert of the tour was at the Avery Fisher Hall (Lincoln Center) in New York on 30 January. The other cities were Ann Arbor, Michigan (26 January), which is known for its famous concert series with a lot of visiting first-class orchestras and Toledo, Ohio (28 January). The programme consisted of the second and third symphony, Pohjola’s Daughter and Finlandia by Sibelius and Interludes from the Last Temptations by Joonas Kokkonen. There were also the Piano Concerto No. 3 by Tchaikovsky and Piano Concerto No. 1 by Prokofiev with Louis Lortie as the soloist.