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Highlights from the BBC Proms, the UK's greatest classical music festival

Highlights from the BBC Proms, the UK's greatest classical music festival.

Memorable performances from the Proms season of classical concerts, recorded in the unique atmosphere of the Royal Albert Hall in London.

BBC Proms on the World Service: BBC Proms 2019: Jean Sibelius and Finnish folk music

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Pekka Kuusisto performs Sibelius Violin Concerto.jpg

17/08/2019 GMT

Jean Sibelius and Finnish folk music

BBC Proms 2019

BBC World Service - BBC Proms on the World Service, BBC Proms 2019, Jean Sibelius and Finnish folk music

Sibelius’s powerful Violin Concerto and the traditional tunes that may have inspired it

Finnish violinist Pekka Kuusisto plays Sibelius’s powerful Violin Concerto and the traditional tunes that may have inspired it.

BBC Prom concert exploring the inspiration behind one of Sibelius’s best-loved works. Sibelius's relationship with Finnish folk music was rewarding but complicated: he rarely quoted actual folk melodies yet many of his works are permeated by the spirit of Nordic traditional music. To highlight the connection, acclaimed Finnish violinist Pekka Kuusisto prefaces his Prom performance of Sibelius's Violin Concerto with a new Prelude that places traditional Scandinavian tunes and themes from the Concerto side by side.

Programme:
Thomas Dausgaard/Timo Akakotila: Prelude to Sibelius’s Violin Concerto in D minor
(world premiere)
followed without a break by:
Jean Sibelius: Violin Concerto in D minor

Taito Hoffren, Ilona Korhonen, Minna-Liisa Tammela, singers
Vilma Timonen, kantele
Timo Alakotila, harmonium
Pekka Kuusisto, violin
BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra
Thomas Dausgaard, conductor

To introduce the concert, Georgia Mann is joined at the Royal Albert Hall by the Director of the Finnish Institute in London, Emilie Gardberg.

(Photo: Pekka Kuusisto performs at the 2019 BBC Proms. Credit: BBC/Chris Christodoulou)

BBC Proms on the World Service: BBC Proms 2019

Highlights from the 2019 season of BBC Proms, the UK's greatest classical music festival.

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Jean Sibelius and Finnish folk music

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