Lahti International
Sibelius Festival 2023
Lahti Symphony Orchestra / Dalia Stasevska (Photo: © Taina Räty)
The Lahti Symphony Orchestra’s 24th Sibelius Festival will be held at the Sibelius Hall in Lahti from 7 to 10 September 2023, with Dalia Stasevska, chief conductor of the orchestra, as its artistic director. The festival will include a guest appearance by the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra under Daniel Harding.
The programmes for the orchestral concerts replicate original programmes conducted by Sibelius; the main chamber concert features works heard at an event to celebrate his fiftieth birthday. A family concert, ‘Melody Forest’, will also be included in the festival programme, on Sunday morning, 7 September.
Sibelius One Group Reservation
Ticket reservations are made via Sibelius One but no advance payment is required: you just pay for the tickets when you collect them from the ticket agency in the town centre. This is a no-cost service but you must be a member of Sibelius One to use it (click here for link to join). You may normally change or cancel your booking without charge simply by letting us know – but if you don’t inform us and fail to use seats booked in your name, you may be liable for the costs.
We reserve a block of concert tickets in the best available seats in the hall. From these seats you experience the acclaimed acoustics of the Sibelius Hall at their very best. Cheaper seats are also available, but those would be away from the main Sibelius One group.
Group members book their own hotel accommodation and travel from their home locations to Finland, as everybody’s requirements vary and many people like to spend a few extra days in Finland either before or after the festival. It is strongly recommended that you arrive at least one day before the first concert in case of flight delays.
Extra event for Sibelius One Members, 2023
As a curtain-raiser to the Sibelius Festival we are planning a day in Turku on Wednesday 6 September. The programme is as follows (details to be conformed closer to the event):
— Evening: concert at the Sibelius Museum (opening concert of their season, to feature some Sibelius).
— Thursday morning: travel to Lahti.
If you would like to be included on the Sibelius One group’s list for tickets and/or in our day in Turku, please contact Andrew Barnett by e-mail (click here) no later than 31 July 2023 (current members only).
The Lahti Symphony Orchestra’s Sibelius Festival 2023
Thursday 07.09. at 19.00, Sibelius Hall
NORFOLK
Lahti Symphony Orchestra / Dalia Stasevska, conductor
Pohjola’s Daughter
King Christian II, Suite
The Swan of Tuonela
Finlandia
Valse triste
The Oceanides
Friday 08.09. at 19.00, Sibelius Hall
STOCKHOLM
Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra / Daniel Harding, conductor
Maria Dueñas, violin
Symphony No. 1
Symphony No. 7
Violin Concerto
Saturday 09.09. at 13.00, Kalevi Aho Hall, Lahti Music Institute
HELSINKI – CHAMBER MUSIC CONCERT
Castalian String Quartet
Emil Holmström, piano
Voces intimae, Op. 56
String Quartet in B flat major, Op. 4
Sonatina in E major for violin and piano, Op. 80
Kyllikki, Op. 41
Saturday 09.09. at 17.00, Sibelius Hall
ROME
Lahti Symphony Orchestra / Dalia Stasevska, conductor
Finlandia
Pelléas et Mélisande, Suite
Lemminkäinen’s Return
Symphony No. 2
Sunday 10.09. at 10.00, Lahden Pikkuteatteri
MELODY FOREST – FAMILY CONCERT
Jussi Makkonen, cello / Nazig Azezian, piano / Tapani Kalliomäki, recitation
Orchestra’s website: click here.
For further information please contact andrewbarnett@fireflyuk.net
Read our review of the 2016 Lahti Sibelius Festival: click here.
Read our review of the 2017 Lahti Sibelius Festival: click here.
Planning a visit to Finland?
If you’re planning a trip to Finland, Sibelius One is always happy to help its members with advice and recommendations about where to stay, what to see and what do do. Drop us a line at info@sibeliusone.com
I attended the Sibelius 150th Birthday Festival in Lahti last year and loved it. I would like to explore a return for the Festival this coming September. I would also like to visit other parts of Finland, either before or after the Festival. Please send any relevant information.
Thank you.
Places to see in Finland
Helsinki “white city of the north”
Capital city of Finland where more than one fifth of Finns live
Mostly built since 1815; no building higher than 10 stories
Tourist Information office (Pohjoisesplanadi 19) sells 2/3 day public transport tickets.
Ninety minute bus tour starting near Information Office gives orientation of interesting sites.
1952 Olympic city: see Olympic Stadium and Youth Hostel there.
Harbour (fish) market and ferry activity
Suomenlinna Fortress 15 minutes ferry trip from Harbour
Academic Bookshop and Stockmans Department Store
City Square with Lutheran Cathedral, University, monument to Czar Alexander, Gov’t buildings
Great Hall of the University where Sibelius premiered many of his works
Russian Orthodox Cathedral built 1867
Railway station, Finlandia Hall, new concert hall, several museums and art galleries
Botanical Gardens.
Rock Church carved out of quarried space and with copper roof
Sibelius Monument (near an apartment he owned for a short while during WW 2)
Seurasaari Open Air Museum (catch a bus to its entrance)
Café Ursula, Seahorse Restaurant, Zetor, etc.
Marshall Mannehheim Museum opened occasionally
Direct train connection to St Petersberg, ferries to Talllin, Porvo, Turku, Stockholm
Turku
Previous capital of Finland with strong Swedish influence
Most was burnt during the great fire of September 1827, but a small section remains as a museum, rebuilt
!3th Century Castle
13th century Lutheran Cathedral
University city with Swedish ansd Finnish Universities
Sibelius museum
Youth Hostel which is a sailing ship
Turku Archipelago with ferries and bridges includes Hafstrask and Korpo where young Sibelius wrote Trios
Porvoo
Less than one hour by bus from Helsinki but much older
Also a ferry service exists between Helsinki and Porvoo
Small cathedral (badly burnt in 2006 but faithfully restored)
Traditional wooden town with town square, red painted boat-sheds and marina
Home of Finland’s great poet, J L Runeberg which is now a museum
His son was a sculptor and his busts are on display in his house next door
Jarvenpaa
About 35k from Helsinki; short trip by train or bus. On Hooked-on-cycling route
Was the home town of Jean Sibelius and Finland’s first novelist, Aleksis Kivi and other artists
Ainola home (1904-57) and grave of Sibelius: 3k from railway station and Sibelius statue.
Visit the former home of landscape painter Peka Halonen friend and neighbour of the Sibelius’s
Hameelinna
Old military town on “Kings’ Road” with medieval castle
Birthplace and schoolplace of Jean Sibelius and Juho Kusti Paasikivi, a Finnish President
Beautiful Lakeside setting; (4 hour?) ferry trip (via sculptor Emil Wikström’s Visavuori studio) to Tampere trough locks.
Tampere, Finland’s largest inland city, near the smaller Nokea
Industry there founded by a Scott on the rapids which provided power to drive industry
University
Lahti
100k north of Helsinki (by bus or train)
3 Ski-jumps and ski museum. Radio museum.
Sibelius Hall built 2000: location of annual Sibelius Festival, by Lake Vesijarvi and heritage boats.
Nearby Sibelius wrote Fire on the Island, piano pieces, and Lemminlainen and the Maidens.
Rauma
A world heritage wooden town near Pori where there is a famous mausoleum and a jazz festival
Savonlinna
Beautiful lake district setting in the heart of Karelia
Castle setting for annual opera festival (which Loreto has attended).
Short distance from world’s largest wooden church at Kerimaki
Koli and Lieksa
In the heart of Karelia. Perhaps the most spectacular view in Finland is on the Koli Mountain (350 metres high) where Sibelius began his Symphony No. 4
Kuhmo in east-central Finland close to the Russian border where an annual chamber music festival is held
Rovaniemi:
Starting point for Finnish Lapland
Father Christmas tourist town on the Arctic Circle. See reindeers.
Lovisa
Spa town with marina on way to St Petersburg
Young Sibelius visited grandmother and aunt here where he wrote Lovisa Piano Trio.
Also on way to Vipuri/Viborg, former jewell of Finland taken by Soviets in 1943.