Concert tour - Washington

Finland’s foremost orchestra celebrates favorite composers of its homeland

Founded in 1882, the highly regarded Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra (HPO) has the distinction of having premiered most of the great Finnish composer Jean Sibelius’s symphonies, with the composer himself conducting. That is in fact the case for the Symphony No. 2, featured on this program and called “a confession of the soul” by the composer—although many Finns of the day interpreted the work as a call for national independence. Under the baton of the renowned Susanna Mälkki, a Helsinki native named Musical America’s “Conductor of the Year” for 2017, the HPO also performs Sibelius’s “Lemminkäinen’s Return,” the concluding movement of the composer’s Lemminkäinen Suite (Op. 22), based on the exploits of a Finnish mythic hero. Completing the program, the HPO looks to Finland’s most renowned contemporary composer, Kaija Saariaho, with a performance of her flute concerto L’Aile du songe (“Wing of the Dream”), featuring soloist Claire Chase, a MacArthur “Genius Grant” recipient praised as “the North Star of her instrument’s ever-expanding universe” (New York Times).

SIBELIUS - “Lemminkäinen’s Return”
KAIJA SAARIAHO - L’Aile du songe, Concerto for flute and orchestra
SIBELIUS - Symphony No. 2 in D Major, Op. 43

This performance is an external rental presented in coordination with the Kennedy Center Campus Rentals Office and is not produced by the Kennedy Center.

Washington Performing Arts’s classical music performances this season are made possible in part through the generous support of Betsy and Robert Feinberg.

His Excellency Mikko Hautala, Ambassador of the Republic of Finland, is the honorary patron of this engagement.

This is one of twenty 2022/23 season performances included in Washington Performing Arts’s The World in Our City initiative, which promotes cross-cultural understanding and cultural diplomacy via the presentation of international visiting artists, globally inspired local programming, and the award-winning Embassy Adoption Program, a partnership with D.C. Public Schools.

Special thanks to the following lead supporters of Washington Performing Arts’s mission-driven work: Jacqueline Badger Mars and Mars, Incorporated; D.C. Commission on the Arts and Humanities; the National Capital Arts and Cultural Affairs Program and the U.S. Commission of Fine Arts; The Morris and Gwendolyn Cafritz Foundation; and the Dallas Morse Coors Foundation for the Performing Arts.