Orchestre de Paris – Philharmonie

A work written for a living legend has been composed for this concert by its conductor Esa-Pekka Salonen:

Stefan Dohr, principal horn player of the Berlin Philharmonic, will explore the tonal world of his instrument in this new horn concerto. To round off the programme, the celebrated Sibelius conductor Salonen will conduct the Finnish national composer’s Symphony No. 5.

In 1983, Luciano Berio created a shimmering musical tapestry in memory of the exceptional American singer and composer Cathy Berberian, his wife of 14 years and also close and longstanding artistic partner. ‘Requies’ for chamber orchestra consists of a single melodic line transformed by Berio into a finely textured and creatively articulated journey through the variety of combinations of orchestral instruments, thereby enabling a tonal immersion into the innermost heart of the musical concept.

The horn with its multifaceted timbres is the home territory of Stefan Dohr, who in the past few decades has breathed life into many new horn concertos. Now the Finnish conductor and composer Esa-Pekka Salonen has written a new work for the virtuoso, directing it himself at this concert. Salonen feels very much at home composing for this instrument – he completed a full course in the horn as part of his studies at the Sibelius Academy in Helsinki.

Many years of intensive work, three different versions and the upheavals of war: the circumstances under which Jean Sibelius composed his Fifth Symphony might lead one to expect ponderous, pensive music.

But even the slow introduction has the character of a triumphal celebration, and the second movement in particular is peaceful and at rest:

the pizzicato theme suggests the dreamy morning mood of a lake deep in the Finnish forest. The third movement is memorable for its epic theme, which Sibelius wrote when he saw 16 swans flying over the lake near his country home – the ‘Swan Hymn’ is undoubtedly the high point of this symphony, richly pictorial in all its Nordic beauty.

Requies (1983/84)

for chamber orchestra

Esa-Pekka Salonen (*1958)

Horn Concerto (2025)

German premiere

Commissioned by Lucerne Festival, Elbphilharmonie Hamburg, Boston Symphony Orchestra, Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra

Symphony No. 5 in E-flat major op. 82 (1915 – 1919)