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The position of Jean Sibelius (1865-1957) as Finland’s national composer is probably incontestable; his significance for the history of Finnish music is unparalleled. Sibelius is also Finland’s most famous composer internationally, whose music has won admirers in all parts of the globe. With its annual Sibelius Festival, the Lahti Symphony Orchestra aims to gather together Sibelius’s friends from all over the world and to offer them a truly memorable weekend in the company of Sibelius’s music. 
The Lahti Symphony Orchestra’s eleventh International
SIBELIUS FESTIVAL 2010
“Sibelius – Symphonic Smith”The Lahti Symphony Orchestra’s eleventh International Sibelius Festival – conducted by the festival’s artistic director, Jukka-Pekka Saraste – will take place on 9th–12th September 2010. The festival programme will include works from Sibelius’s late period and Kullervo. At the 2008 and 2009 festivals we followed Sibelius’s development from a talented national figure Into a composer who was fluent in the European musical language of his time. At the 2010 festival, we follow this line of development towards ever greater independence from the rest of the world’s trends. In start contrast to these late orchestral works, the festival’s orchestral concerts conclude with Kullervo, a work from his youth. This is a fervent show of strength by a young man who was on the way to achieving public recognition – a piece which, as I see it, is exceptionally rich in individuality for such an early orchestral work. In this way we get two interesting viewpoints on ‘Finnishness’: the change in Sibelius’s style also depicts different aspects of Finnishness – from the primeval utterance of Kullervo to the economy of expression found in that late works. The soloists at the festival’s orchestral concerts will be Alina Pogostkina, winner of the Sibelius Violin Competition in 2005, and two of the truly great Finnish singers, Helena Juntunen and Jorma Hynninen. In addition to Saturday’s performance of the Kullervo symphony, the Sunday morning concert too will feature choral music. Welcome to the Sibelius Hall, to listen to Sibelius! Jukka-Pekka Saraste
Artistic Director of the Lahti Symphony
Orchestra’s Sibelius Festival
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