Philharmonia Orchestra, Leila Josefowicz & Esa‐Pekka Salonen

About the Event

When the Palace of Arts was opened in 2005, the concert given by the Philharmonia Orchestra met with resounding success under the baton of composer and conductor Esa‐Pekka Salonen.

The London‐based orchestra, under the leadership of Salonen for the past four years, now makes its return to Budapest. Formed in 1945, the orchestra became closely associated with Otto Klemperer, just one of many legendary 20th century and contemporary conductors to have regularly graced the podium. Having spent 20 years as musical director of the Los Angeles Philharmonic, Salonen is at least as much a musical ambassador of his home country Finland as he is of contemporary and 20th century music, and so it is no surprise that he often includes works by the creator of Finland’s national musical identity on his concert programmes. The music of Sibelius has enjoyed a genuine renaissance in the past decade. The symphonic fantasy Pohjola’s Daughter was written in 1906, and though it cannot rival the popularity of Finlandia, The Swan of Tuonela, the Valse triste or the Violin Concerto in D minor, it is sometimes still heard in concert halls around the world as an example of the epic Kalevala. Sibelius's Violin Concerto, which was composed at roughly the same time, was dedicated by its composer to the 12‐year‐old prodigy Ferenc Vecsey, who successfully championed the work. Ever since, it has remained one of the most frequently performed Sibelius compositions. With her own hectic career as a wunderkind behind her, Leila Josefowicz comes to Budapest having recorded the work at the somewhat more advanced age of 17, and having premièred Salonen’s own Violin Concerto some fifteen years later.

The concert certainly promises to be unconventional, and – knowing Salonen’s fresh approach to the material – this will doubtless also ring true of his rendition of a work from the standard repertoire, Beethoven’s Symphony No. 7.