Icelandic fire from Anna Thorvaldsdottir at the BBC Proms

Eva Ollikainen and Johannes Moser

Johannes Moser and Anna Thorvaldsdottir with the BBC Symphony Orchestra

By Charlotte Gardner, 15 August 2025

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“there seemed little doubt that a formidable new concerto had landed”

Reviewed at Royal Albert Hall, London on 13 August 2025

Varèse, Intégrales

Thorvaldsdottir, Before we fall (Cello Concerto) (BBC co-commission: UK Premiere)

Ravel, Boléro

Stravinsky, Le Sacre du printemps (The Rite of Spring)

Johannes Moser, Cello

BBC Symphony Orchestra

Eva Ollikainen, Conductor

Sakari Oramo, Yeol Eum Son and the BBC Symphony in Seoul

SangKwon Lee, 26th March

Yeol Eum Son’s Britten Piano Concerto formed the evening’s centre of gravity, played with lucid line, structural command and sudden fire. In Brahms’ Second Symphony, Sakari Oramo found conviction, proportion and a warmth that felt earned rather than applied.

****1

Sakari Oramo and Yeol Eum Son summon up vivid landscapes

Christopher Woodley, 13th March

Yeol Eum Son's superb performances of Bartók and Finzi are matched by intense and heady readings of Stravinsky and Weir by the BBC Symphony Orchestra under Sakari Oramo.

****1

From snow to sludge: Icelandic music at the Barbican Centre

Marat Ingeldeev, 22nd February

A bewildering evening at the Barbican, where ambitious Icelandic programming collapses under its lofty ambition of defying genres and making music more appealing to a wide variety of audiences.

**111

Fine Lindberg and Stravinsky double bill from the BBC Symphony

Roy Westbrook, 6th February

After a performance of Magnus Lindberg’s First Violin Concerto by Lisa Batiashvili at the Barbican, Stravinsky’s Perséphone stands the test of time.

****1

UK premiere of Julia Wolfe’s unEarth impresses on scale, not substance

Susannah Moody, 23rd January

Wolfe's climate-change oratorio, performed by the BBC Symphony Orchestra, already feels out of date.

**111

Sir James MacMillan delights with his Christmas Oratorio

David Karlin, 19th December

MacMillan's large scale choral work offers a rich variety of texts and musical ideas, the composer conducts the BBC Symphony with unerring precision.

*****

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Charlotte Gardner

Charlotte Gardner is a music critic and journalist regularly to be found in specialist music publications including Gramophone (where she specialises in strings and Baroque), The Strad and Classical Music magazine, and writing concert programme notes for organisations including the Royal Scottish National Orchestra. Before turning to writing she spent eight years at the BBC, the final years of which were in News, on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme. She holds a Music MA from the University of Cambridge.

Icelandic fire from Ollikainen, Moser and Thorvaldsdottir at the BBC Proms