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Finland Awakes!

BBC Symphony Orchestra/Oramo

A picture of Guy Johnson holding a cello

Music from the young Sibelius to mark the centenary of Finnish Independence, ending with the First Symphony, a noble and magnificent symphonic debut.

To mark Finnish Independence Day – on December 6 1917, Finland ended its autonomy as a Grand Duchy within Russia and became a republic – the BBC SO’s Finnish Chief Conductor offers a programme by Finland’s greatest composer. Sibelius’s Press Celebrations Music contains what would later emerge as Finlandia which soon became a defiant unofficial national anthem. Guy Johnson plays two rarities for cello and orchestra, originally written in 1915 for church use, and which share the same opus number. The BBC SO’s Sibelius’s symphony cycle continues with the powerful First from 1899, a time when the Russian Emperor was flexing his muscles at the Finnish people, giving the music an almost political charge.

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Cocktails, concrete and tonnes of charm

Pop into the Martini Bar for a pre-performance tipple, with Happy Hour from 5-6pm

Barbican Hall