Proms 2015 Prom 58: Sibelius – Kullervo

Finnish conductor Sakari Oramo pairs two of Sibelius’s most engagingly descriptive works as we continue our 150th-anniversary celebrations of the composer. The folk hero Kullervo was the inspiration behind a powerful national statement for a country struggling to overthrow Russian rule. This massive musical hybrid – part cantata, part symphony, part suite – is a vivid work, richly melodic but looking ahead to modernism in some striking musical gestures. En saga is a fairy tale without a plot, whose contrasting movements suggest many possible stories, but never commit to just one.