Hungarian National Philharmonic Orchestra

Globally celebrated for his sensitivity to orchestral timbres and tones, not to mention a characteristic dynamism on the podium, Hannu Lintu, music director of the Finnish Radio Orchestra, is regularly hosted in America, Asia and Europe. Naturally enough, in his programmes he devotes particular attention to his homeland. This time he conducts the final fantasia-like symphony – which unusually is just a single movement – by Sibelius, the father of Finnish national music. Stravinsky’s Funeral Song is also unusual: long thought to have been lost, it was rediscovered in 2015; Symphony of Psalms is far better known and a classic of 20th-century music, expertly combining choir and orchestra. Yet more excitement is promised in the form of one of Prokofiev’s final opuses, the extraordinarily complex cello concerto, which moves in symphonic dimensions and was dedicated to Mstislav Rostropovich and which here features a solo by István Várdai, the international music celebrity.