Sibelius and Shostakovich shared a gift for lyric storytelling, lending cohesion to this evening of musical narratives at Symphony Hall, from the frosty myths and legends of Finland to the gnomic utterances of the Soviet composer’s final symphony.
Osmo Vänskä has decades of experience where Sibelius is concerned, so it was unsurprising that these meticulous interpretations felt lived in. What was remarkable, however, was the way the Finnish conductor drew out the groundbreaking qualities in some of the more conventional works. This was particularly apparent in the central movement of the Karelia Suite where the warmth of the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra’s strings was underpinned by a folk-inflected harmonic pungency, or in the outer movements where intricate countermelodies that sometimes go unnoticed were revealed.
