Lahti Symphony with Vänskä at BBC Proms in London on 15 August 2007

The Lahti Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Chief Conductor Osmo Vänskä, will perform at the BBC Proms concert series on 15 August 2007. In the concert at the Royal Albert Hall will be performed The Tempest by Sibelius, incidental music to Shakespeare’s play. The work as the complete score will now be heard first time ever in Britain performed by Finnish artists. The soloists are mezzo-soprano Lilli Paasikivi (Ariel), soprano Helena Juntunen (Juno), tenor Juha Hostikka (Stephano), baritone Ville Rusanen (Caliban) and tenor Petri Lehto (Trinculo), and the choir is Dominante. In the concert programme there are also Sibelius’s Symphony No. 7 and orchestral songs with Juntunen and Paasikivi as the soloists. BBC will broadcast the concert on radio.

The same concert will be performed at the new Verkatehdas concert hall in Hämeenlinna on Monday 13 August 2007.

The Lahti Symphony Orchestra performed at the BBC Proms with Vänskä for the first time in August 2003. The concert was a major success and received high praise from the critics. The Guardian stated: ‘The chance to experience Vanska and his orchestra in Sibelius is one of the great treats of present-day concert-going – as revelatory as hearing the Royal Concertgebouw in Mahler or the Berlin Philharmonic in Richard Strauss.’ The Daily Telegraph named the concert as ‘a true highlight of the season’ and the Financial Times wrote that Lahti Symphony and Osmo Vänskä have with their Sibelius recordings  ‘set new standards’ for performing Sibelius’s music.