Sakari Oramo & Anu Komsi

sopraano Anu Komsi Picture by: copyright Maarit Kytöharju Anu Komsi

Merikanto’s expressionist Fantasia is a powerful piece for orchestra, one of the best of its day in Finland. Ekho, to words by V.A. Koskenniemi, is also a beautifully-coloured work that Merikanto wanted to sound “lively, story-like, like a woman in love full of unrequited longing”. Richard Strauss was one of the composers who influenced the Late-Romantic idiom of Rued Langgaard. The title Det himmelrivende (The Heaven-Rending) springs from his worldview – a mixture of Protestantism, Catholicism, theosophy and mysticism. Richard Strauss’s swansongs round off the evening.