UK premiere of Saariaho's HUSH

UK premiere of Saariaho's HUSH

In an evening-long meditation on life and the hereafter, on January 24 Sakari Oramo and the BBC Symphony Orchestra present the UK premiere of Kaija Saariaho's final work, HUSH, a trumpet concerto written in 2023 for the evening's soloist Verneri Pohjola.

Pohjola's rich musical background and taste for extended techniques, experimentation, and improvisation inspired the work, a final, profoundly moving testament from one of our century’s greatest creative spirits, as she took her own 'journey to silence'.

A jewel as rare as this demands a very special setting, and Oramo – a lifelong admirer of Saariaho’s music – has placed Hush at the centre of a concert that begins with Gustav Mahler's Adagio from Symphony No 10, gazing into the abyss, and ends with Vaughan Williams’s vision of beauty soaring clear and free with The Lark Ascending. BBC SO leader Igor Yuzefovich plays The Lark Ascending, and the BBC Symphony Chorus sings Towards the Unknown Region: another timeless meditation on an eternal question. 

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