Nobody has done more to inspire young musicians in Norway than Kjell Seim (photo: Magnus Skrede), chief conductor of the Bergen Philharmonic Youth Orchestra since its foundation in 2015.
For this concert Kjell Seim has chosen some of his favourite Nordic works.
The programme opens with Egil Hovland’s rousing, jubilant Fanfare and Chorale, premiered in its version for orchestra at the Bergen International Festival in 1967. The critics liked what they heard and described the piece as colourful and a sparkling fire explosion.
Norwegian soprano Hedvig Haugerud is the soloist in Edvard Grieg’s beautiful orchestral songs.
Kjell Seim and Bergen Philharmonic Youth Orchestra conclude with one of the greatest symphonies ever written. Sibelius’s Symphony No. 2 grows from its searching opening towards perhaps the most embracing symphonic conclusion in history - a grand hymn that combines power and optimism as it sweeps all doubts away.