A BBC Proms appearance featuring Finnish violinist, conductor and composer Pekka Kuusisto is never likely to be run-of-the-mill. His 2016 Proms debut culminated in a raw, vital performance of a Finnish folk song, introduced with the assurance of a professional standup comic and incorporating a full audience sing along. Since then there’s been virtuosic whistling and folk fiddling, a TV soundtrack and a collaboration with a neuropsychologist – as well as numerous concerto performances and a burgeoning conducting career. In the face of Kuusisto’s generous, voracious musicality, boundaries between “classical”, “folk” and “pop” disintegrate.
On paper, his appearance at this year’s Proms promised peak Pekka. The first half featured Ume Sámi vocalist Katarina Barruk, mixing her songs inspired by the indigenous tradition of joiking in a language on Unesco’s most-endangered list with short, mostly minimalist works. The second juxtaposed performances of Arvo Pärt’s Fratres and Shostakovich’s Chamber Symphony by Kuusisto and the Norwegian Chamber Orchestra. “It’s definitely going to be a unique concert,” I heard a concertgoer reassure his friends as they surveyed a far-from-full Royal Albert Hall.
