Sibelius’s rarely heard cantata The Captive Queen (Vapautettu kuningatar) will be performed in Bedford on Saturday 8 February 2020.

The concert also includes music by Beethoven, Strauss, Desyatnikov, Ešenvalds, Bruckner and Verdi. It is performed by the Bedford Great Ouse Orchestra and Choir conducted by Christopher Ridley (timpanist of the Royal Opera House Covent Garden). This is a charity concert in aid of the Bedford Homeless Partnership.

Sibelius’s single-movement cantata was written for a patriotic event in 1906, celebrating the centenary of the birth of the statesman and philosopher Johan Vilhelm Snellman (1806–81), an influential champion of the Finnish language who played a major role in the establishment of a Finnish cultural identity. It has a text by Paavo Cajander (1846–1913), telling of a queen, imprisoned in a castle, who is liberated by a young hero. Sibelius himself conducted its first performance in Helsinki on 12th May 1906.

Venue: St Andrew’s Church, Bedford
7.30 pm, Saturday 8 February 2020
Tickets: £10 from eventbrite.co.uk or 07970 751270

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