Prom 34 – Thorvaldsdottir, Elgar and Sibelius

Part of the BBC Proms.

Primal urges – to live, love and be free – animate this concert from Eva Ollikainen and the BBC Philharmonic. Elgar’s Cello Concerto combines a deep sense of mourning – possibly at the catastrophe of the First World War – with the most heartfelt, eloquent lyricism, while echoes of both Don Juan and Dante’s Divine Comedyare woven through Sibelius’ Second Symphony, a work torn between pastoral calm and restless disquiet, and later adopted as a symbol of Finnish national resistance and liberation. Award-winning Icelandic composer Anna Thorvaldsdottir’s music has a tectonic quality, cracking and flickering with elemental force. Primordial energy itself is the inspiration for her ARCHORA, which receives its world premiere