Open Rehearsal: In the Land of the Mountain King

Programme

How does a conductor communicate their interpretation of a piece with an orchestra and the soloist as they prepare for a performance?

Our Open Rehearsals give you access to this creative process and allow you to see the Philharmonia at work. Learn more about the pieces and start to listen to your favourites with a fresh pair of ears.

Originally written for Ibsen’s play about the adventures of a globetrotting Norwegian antihero, Grieg’s Peer Gynt Suite No. 1 is inextricably linked with his homeland. For this suite, Grieg picked out his listeners’ favourite moments, including the dreamy ‘Morning’ and ‘In the Hall of the Mountain King’, in which Peer Gynt is chased by angry trolls.

Ever since its 1902 premiere, Sibelius’s beloved Second Symphony has been claimed as the sound of an independent Finland. Whether or not that was his intention, Sibelius certainly conjured up in sound the contrast between icy winds and gentle sunshine, frantic fear and triumphant hope, in music of enduring emotional power.

Between these two classics comes a new piece by Outi Tarkiainen, a composer from Finnish Lapland. Her percussion-rich score accompanies Joakim Odelberg’s fascinating underwater film of the wildlife of the Nordic coastline.