Venue: Gothenburg Concert Hall: Stora Salen

The precise control of Santu-Matthias Rouvali yields a reference Symphonie fantastique from the Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra; the Sibelius Violin Concerto is less convincing.

The program prominently featured compositions by Canadian composer Claude Vivier alongside works of Haydn and Busoni.

Singing as well as conducting, Barbara Hannigan leads the GSO in symphonies by Haydn and Mahler. 

Saraste’s mastery in Sibelius is hardly a surprise, and neither is the calibre of the orchestra Sibelius himself often visited to conduct.

Baritone Peter Mattei brought both musical sensitivity as well as almost Berg-ian drama to Mahler’s Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen, ably supported by Manfred Honeck and the Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra, in a successful livestream concert. 

Sibelius' Kalevala-inspired epic is given the full treatment by the Orphei Drängar choir and the Gothenburg Symphony in Santtu-Matias Rouvali's inaugural concert as Chief Conductor of the Gothenburg Symphony.

The Iceland Symphony Orchestra's tour to the acoustically excellent Göteborgs konserthus in Sweden for a concert of Sibelius, Strauss and Thorvaldsdóttir was an obvious success, demonstrating an orchestral sound that deserves to be heard abroad more often. 

In Jukka-Pekka Saraste's hands, Mahler's Sixth Symphony is an unrelenting work which left the audience gasping for air at its stunning conclusion.