Hush…when the great Finnish composer Kaija Saariaho died in 2023, she left behind her a trumpet concerto unlike any other, crafted to showcase the remarkable, genre-crossing artistry of trumpeter Verneri Pohjola. He gives its UK premiere tonight. a final, profoundly moving testament from one of our century’s greatest creative spirits, as she took her own “journey to silence”.
A jewel as rare as this demands a very special setting, and Sakari Oramo – a lifelong irer of Saariaho’s music – has placed Hush at the centre of a concert that begins with Gustav Mahler gazing into the abyss, and ends with Vaughan Williams’s vision of beauty soaring clear and free. BBC SO leader Igor Yuzefovich plays The Lark Ascending, and the BBC Symphony Chorus sings Towards the Unknown Region: another timeless meditation on an eternal question.
Tickets on general sale from 19 April