Conductor: Tarmo Peltokoski

Piano: Jan Lisieski

This concert comprises Beethoven sandwiched with Sibelius, starting with the latter’s Phojola’s Daughter which is probably new to most of the audience in the packed Royal Festival Hall. It’s a tone poem inspired by an ancient Finnish story. This performance provides a rather good cello solo over growling percussion to set the scene and leans on the harp, which represents a spinning wheel. The final fade out from cellos, seated for once in the traditional position, at the end is impressive. As he shows many times in this concert, conductor Tarmo Peltokoski is very good at coaxing the quietest possible pianissimi from his players.

Then it is reduced forces and the usual fuss with furniture to position the piano for Beethoven’s Piano Concerto no 5 “Emperor” and Jan Lisiecki, who is very much the star of the evening. He is a highly charismatic young soloist from Canada who looks like a poised Greek god and whose body language makes it clear that he feels every nuance of the music even when he’s not playing. It is almost as if he were conducting from the keyboard. He and Peltokoski give a spirited account of the opening allegro with that all-essential blend of Beethovenian grandiloquence and lightness. The orchestra does a fine job too with some exceptionally fine bassoon work in the passage leading to the fugal descending scales.

The second movement – with muted strings – is slow even for an adagio but the tempo enables Lisiecki to deliver a tenderly controlled conversation between orchestra and piano. Then comes arguably the most magical moment in the entire Beethoven oeuvre: the link between the second and third movements done here with great elegance before Lisiecki dances off into the joyous sunny rondo, fingers flying and all the orchestral interjections carefully balanced especially during the sustained piano trills. It isn’t quite together in the final bars but by then we’re on a high and it doesn’t matter much.

After the interval, we get Sibelius’ Symphony No. 2, one of the most approachable (and playable) of all the Sibelius symphonies. It’s full of heavy brass, tense string work and big climactic melodies which evoke Finland and its political struggles so colourfully, Highlights of this pleasing performance include splendid trombone playing, sensitive timp work, warm and incisive pizzicato, a beautiful oboe solo, a dramatic final minute and some very effective general pauses – another of Peltokoski’s strengths.

Reviewed on 12 April 2025