Lahti Symphony Orchestra / Dalia Stasevska (Photo: © Taina Räty)
The Lahti Symphony Orchestra’s 23rd Sibelius Festival will be held at the Sibelius Hall in Lahti from 31 August to 4 September 2022, with Dalia Stasevska, chief conductor of the orchestra, as its artistic director. The festival will be opened by an international guest appearance of the highest calibre, when the Estonian Festival Orchestra, consisting of European musicians, will perform on Wednesday 31 August, conducted by the renowned Estonian conductor Paavo Järvi.
The Lahti Symphony Orchestra will give three concerts at the festival conducted by Dalia Stasevska. The theme of the orchestral concert on Thursday, 1 September 2022, is ‘Flora and Fauna’, and the concert will feature Pan and Echo, the concert suite from Pelléas et Mélisande, The Wood-Nymph (melodrama) and Snöfrid.
The programmes for the orchestral concerts on Friday 2 September and Saturday 3 September were originally chosen by Jean Sibelius himself. ‘In Sibelius’s time, it was typical that the première of the new work took place in a concert organized by the composer himself. This allowed composers to present their other works as well. Sibelius was especially careful to ensure that his premières took place at concerts where the repertoire consisted exclusively of his own compositions’, explains Stasevska, and continues: ‘The Friday and Saturday orchestral concerts at the Sibelius Festival are programmes chosen by Sibelius himself from 1911 and 1927. These included the Finnish premières of the Fourth and Seventh Symphonies and Tapiola. These reconstructed concerts allow us an interesting glimpse into the music of Sibelius as presented by the composer himself.
As an innovation, a family concert, ‘Melody Forest’, will also be included in the festival programme, on the afternoon of Saturday 3 September. The festival concludes with another new kind of collaboration, at Lahti Church of the Cross on Sunday morning, 4 September, with a Keski-Lahti parish church service, the musical content of which focuses on the music of Sibelius.
The festival will also feature a piano recital, and the concerts are complemented by other events such as pre-concert talks. Further details of the festival programme will be announced later and ticket sales will start in February (date to be announced) via the ticket agency Lippupiste.