Tour to Germany and The Netherlands

In early 2014, the HPO went on tour to Germany and The Netherlands with John Storgårds conducting. The soloists were Arabella Steinbacher, Rafael Blechacz and Jörg Widman, and there were concerts in such cities as Munich, Frankfurt, Stuttgart, Eindhoven and Heerlen.

Some of the items in the extensive repertoire were familiar classics, such as works by Mozart, Beethoven and Schumann, but there were also some Finnish renderings of Madetoja and Sibelius. The Central European audiences heard Lemminkäinen and The Swan of Tuonela, the first of which was widely praised.

“To be sure, Sibelius is still not everyone’s cup of tea in Germany, but can anyone help us appreciate him better than this orchestra?” asked the Kölner Stadt-Anzeiger in reporting the tour.

Text: Salla Viitanen