Sibelius’s Second Symphony

Live at the BBC Proms: the BBC Symphony Orchestra conducted by Sakari Oramo in Sibelius's Symphony No.2, Turnage's Festen Suite, and, with Guy Johnston, Britten's Cello Symphony.

Presented by Hannah French, live from the Royal Albert Hall, London

Mark‐Anthony Turnage: Festen Suite (BBC co-commission: UK premiere)
Benjamin Britten: Cello Symphony

c.8.00pm
Interval: Mark Anthony Turnage talks to Hannah French about his award-winning opera Festen, and adapting the suite for orchestra. Plus, Daniel Grimely talks about Sibelius's Symphony No. 2.

c.08.20
Jean Sibelius: Symphony No. 2 in D major

Guy Johnston (Cello)
BBC Symphony Orchestra
Sakari Oramo (Conductor)

Fifty years since Benjamin Britten’s death, former BBC Young Musician winner Guy Johnston brings the composer’s Cello Symphony to the Proms. Originally written for Mstislav Rostropovich, it’s the composer at his most intense: a tour de force for the soloist, set against a brooding, often eerie orchestral backdrop. There’s darkness in Sibelius’s Symphony No. 2 as well – gloriously thrown aside in the glowing finale – but is it the weight of Russian political oppression or of personal loss? The concert opens with the UK premiere of Mark-Anthony Turnage’s Festen Suite, adapted from the composer’s multi-Olivier-Award-winning 2025 opera.