Barbican, London
Sakari Oramo allowed the enigmatic Sixth symphony to roll into the majestic Seventh without mannerism or affectation
Whether by serendipity or design, Sakari Oramo’s concert with the BBC Symphony Orchestra on the 158th anniversary of Sibelius’s birth ended with superb performances of the great composer’s two final symphonies, the Sixth and Seventh. Oramo’s credentials as a Sibelius interpreter are already impeccable – his accounts of the tone poems in the Total Immersion day that the BBCSO devoted to the composer last season were one of the highlights of 2022 – but the clarity and freshness that he brought to these symphonies still came as a joyous revelation.
Oramo presented the two works as a single span, with no break at all between them, so that the modal radiance with which the Sixth comes to rest was followed immediately by the ominous timpani rolls that set the massive mechanism of the single-movement Seventh under way. His approach was utterly free of mannerism or affectation, totally avoiding the moulding and micro-management that some conductors impose on the great musical paragraphs. Sibelius’s architecture was allowed to speak for itself, sometimes enigmatically in the Sixth, majestically and unswervingly in the Seventh, with the BBCSO ensuring that every unvarnished detail registered in both symphonies.
