Prom 42 – Sibelius, Beethoven and Nielsen

Part of the BBC Proms.

‘Music is like life and, like life, inextinguishable,’ wrote Carl Nielsen. It’s this broad philosophy that underpins his ambitious Symphony No. 4 – a work that hurls us from conflict to magnificent resolution. In the second of their two concerts together, Thomas Dausgaard and the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra continue to explore Denmark’s great symphonist, here set alongside his Finnish contemporary Sibelius, whose remarkable Symphony No. 7 unfolds in a single movement – a unified, and ultimately triumphant, musical vision. Former BBC Radio 3 New Generation Artist Francesco Piemontesi is the soloist in Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 4 – acting as Orpheus taming the orchestral Furies in the evocative central movement.