Conductor: Karina Canellakis

The concert opens with Pohjola’s Daughter, a Sibelius tone poem which doesn’t get out very often. Rooted in the Finnish national epic, Kalevala, it tells the story of an old man travelling home from the north and having mystic experiences on the way. The resonant, growling  cello solo (Waynne Kwon) at the opening is arresting in this performance as is the arresting string work which follows. And conductor Karina Canellakis really allows the grandiloquent brass, of which Sibelius was so fond, to sing out.

The high spot, though, comes next when Anne-Sophie Mutter, a slender column in elegant sky blue, arrives to play Tchaikovsky’s  violin concerto to rapturous, excited, applause. She has been such a huge influence on  music and music education for so long it’s a struggle to remember that she’s still only 62.  With nothing to prove, she’s an unshowy, collaborative performer frequently turning to orchestra, conductor and audience.

Mutter plays a golden, gleaming Stradivarius instrument without shoulder rest and rather, sweetly, hangs the duster she uses for part of the performance on the back of the leading desk’s music stand and keeps her mute on the corner of the conductor’s stand.

Her first movement cadenza is full of musical acrobatics and the accuracy and beauty of the sequences of harmonics breathtaking. The resolving tension in the long trill which prefaces the orchestra pick up is nicely nuanced. The muted Canzonetta movement, effectively a duet with flute (Tom Hancox) is a delight. Then comes the gravelly segue into the high-speed Finale and more spectacular harmonics from Mutter. No wonder the audience goes wild at the end.

Mutter is a communicator at every level, Once the applause subsides she takes a microphone and thanks the LPO for their fine playing and makes a few moving remarks about the power of music to unite “a troubled and divided world” before announcing her encore. Andre Previn (to whom Mutter was married from 2002-2006) wrote Tango Song and Dance in 1997 as a violin and piano piece, and later orchestrated it. Perhaps because it was written for her, she plays it with smiling panache. Her fabulous virtuosity shines through but also feels warmly modest.

Famously described by Wagner as “the apotheosis of the dance,” Beethoven’s seventh symphony certainly dances under Karina Canellakis’s baton. We get tender exuberance, sensible tempi and meticulous attention to every detail. Also a violinist, Canellakis has exceptionally expressive fingers. She beats time with her right hand, signals with her left and creates rhythmic, often geometric, shapes with her arms and body. It’s captivating to watch the LPO’s principal guest conductor weaving her spells.

Highlights in the Beethoven include oboe playing (Emanuel Abbuhl) in the opening movement and the build-up of the relentless main theme in the Allegretto, arguably one of the best movements the composer ever wrote.  Also noteworthy are the horns in the third movement and the  hard stick timp work (Marney O’Sullivan) throughout. And as for the Finale, it is played here with all the brio that Beethoven could have wanted, especially in the lively string playing and the thrill of the final bars.

Reviewed on 18 February 2026