Oramo set for an emotional return
The CBSO is welcoming back a former principal conductor to Symphony Hall. CHRISTOPHER MORLEY reports
WHEN Sir Simon Rattle left the CBSO in 1998 after 18 years as principal conductor, everyone knew he would be a hard act to follow.
But the management had been busy behind the scenes, ensuring a smooth succession to secure the players’ choice, the young Finn Sakari Oramo, who had so impressed them conducting the orchestra in a performance of Berlioz’ Symphonie Fantastique.
Sakari chalked up ten triumphant years at the CBSO before moving on to the position he has made so emphatically his own, principal conductor of the BBC Symphony Orchestra (following on from two of his CBSO predecessors – Adrian Boult and Rudolf Schwarz).
Next week, he returns to Birmingham to conduct two programmes. He chuckles when I ask him how will it be, going back to the CBSO after all these years?
“It will be fantastic, of course, and certainly very emotional, too. I think I will recognise some players in the orchestra, but most of them will be new faces. The hall will be familiar, of course, and the CBSO Centre, and the alleyways around them.”
Sakari did so much for the CBSO when he was its music director. Has he been able to keep an eye on the orchestra’s progress?
“Yes, I have! Social media helps a lot. Nowadays things are much easier to follow than they were back then. It’s been very nice to follow the appointment of the now music director (Kazuki Yamada), which seems to be as happy an affair as mine was, and my successors.”
Sakari’s programme with the CBSO on February 28 will feature the Richard Strauss Four Last Songs – Sakari’s wife Anu Komsi making a welcome return as soprano soloist – and Sibelius’ Seventh Symphony. How much of an input did he have in the building of this programme?
“Well, I am glad the CBSO took the bait and accepted the programme as we suggested it! It’s good that it’s quite close to the centenary of the premiere of Sibelius’ Seventh Symphony. Back in 1924 Sibelius conducted it himself in Stockholm.
“And actually there’s an interesting dynamic in the programme, in that the Strauss is the newest of the pieces, although of course the composer was the oldest of them all. And the style of the Four Last Songs is harking back to the glory days of romanticism, whereas Sibelius, especially in The Tempest (which begins the programme) and the Seventh Symphony, looks forward in time, rather than backwards.”
We then have a discussion about why I consider Sibelius Seven the second greatest symphony of the 20th century. Which is the greatest, Sakari asks me? Mahler Six, I reply, for the classicism of its form, and how so much emotion is constrained into such a tight structure. Sakari listens politely, but will not commit himself.
Sakari’s February 29 concert with the orchestra is in fact the CBSO Development Fund concert, in which all the performers give their services towards supporting former and present CBSO players and staff.
As currently advertised, the only announced work is Mozart’s Violin Concerto no.5, Daishin Kashimoto the soloist. Can Sakari fill me in on any of the other items?
“If I remember it correctly, we have Elgar’s Cockaigne overture to start with, and Sibelius Five to end with.” After a mutual enthusing over Malcolm Arnold symphonies, with which Sakari has recently become acquainted, we move on to a delicate discussion of the recent controversy surrounding the continued inclusion of Rule, Britannia in the Last Night of the Proms, over which Sakari generally presides.
‘‘I know it is a problem in the sense of racial inequality, but I think in this context it’s a kind of calling-card for the performer. I see it as more of a party-piece where the soloist likes to dress up, and it’s boisterous fun.’’
■ Sakari Oramo conducts the CBSO on February 28 and 29 at Symphony Hall (7.30pm).