CELEBRATING NIELSEN: THE INEXTINGUISHABLE

Thursday 8 January 2009 at 7.30pm

Bridgewater Hall, Manchester 0161 907 9000

Dmitri Slobodeniouk  conductor
Nikolai Lugansky  piano

Nielsen: Rhapsody Overture: An Imaginary Journey to the Faroe Islands 12'
Rachmaninov: Piano Concerto No. 2 32' Listen
requires Real Player
Nielsen: Symphony No. 4 (The Inextinguishable) 36'

Sakari Oramo, the CBSO's Principal Guest Conductor, has unfortunately had to withdraw from these concerts through ill health.

After last season's acclaimed cycle of Sibelius symphonies, this season we feature the equally impressive cycle by his exact contemporary Carl Nielsen. His varied output holds the same central place in Danish music as Sibelius does in Finland, and his six symphonies are full of struggle, reflection and strong emotion - just like real life. Principal guest conductor Sakari Oramo begins this series with a charming picture-postcard overture and the composer's best-known work. Written at the height of the First World War, this symphony is a volcanic musical struggle between the forces of destruction and the energy of life itself, culminating in one of the most uplifting - and thrilling - endings in all music.

£9 - £36