Symphony Concert N° 8

It’s always an extraordinary event when Herbert Blomstedt conducts the Staatskapelle. The orchestra’s Conductor Laureate has been associated with the Dresden ensemble for more than half a century. Now he is presenting two works seldom performed together: Beethoven’s Fourth from 1806 – a work which also provided inspiration to Mahler in his First – and Sibelius’s Fifth, composed more than 100 years later, in which the Finn married the classical form to the musical traditions of his homeland. The powerful melody of the finale, which was inspired by the composer’s observation of a group of swans taking flight, enjoys huge popularity.