Synopsis:

"I do not think of a symphony only as music in this or that number of bars, but rather as an expression of a spiritual creed, a phase in one's inner life."

The Philharmonic Orchestra, helmed by Artistic Director Lim Yau, rounds up the full Sibelius Symphonies cycle in our third and final instalment, with sunrises, snowscapes, and starfields painted with sound on silence in his Fifth, Sixth, and Seventh symphonies.

Jean Sibelius' greatest and most "intensely felt response to nature and environment" would manifest in music. After the passionate nationalism of his first three symphonies and the grim Fourth, Sibelius and Finland marked his fiftieth birthday with the magnificent swan-song inspired Fifth symphony. Then with the elemental Sixth, followed (fresh with the scent of "first snow") swiftly by the Seventh ("symphonic fantasy" and solemn love-letter to his wife), permanently concluded his contribution to the symphonic genre.

"If I cannot write a better symphony than my Seventh, then it shall be my last."

FEATURING
The Philharmonic Orchestra Singapore
Lim Yau, conductor

PROGRAMME
SIBELIUS
Symphony No. 5 in E-flat major, Op. 82
Symphony No. 6 in D minor, Op. 104
Symphony No. 7 in C major, Op. 105