NOSPR / Tomasiewicz / Romanowski - NOSPR

Sounds we would not normally expect to hear from a symphony orchestra can fire the imagination more powerfully than any image on a screen. This educational concert explores music that ventures beyond the boundaries of traditional concert performance, drawing on entirely new possibilities to invite us into worlds we have yet to discover.

In Cantus Arcticus, Einojuhani Rautavaara explores just such fascinating territory and connections. Authentic recordings of birds from northern Finland join the sounds of the orchestra, becoming part of the musical narrative. Nature and orchestra begin to breathe to the same rhythm, and the boundary between what is written in the score and what was heard and recorded in the wild begins to blur.

The double bass will also take centre stage. Although it usually provides the foundation of the orchestra, it rarely finds itself in the spotlight. Eduard Tubin’s Concerto for Double Bass and Orchestra completely dispels the notion that this ‘bass giant can do little more than growl away in the background’. The instrument reveals a surprising side of itself: remarkably agile, lyrical and charged with dramatic tension, it engages the orchestra in a fierce, at times abrasive dialogue.

Carl Nielsen’s Aladdin Suite transports us to an entirely different realm of the imagination. An explosion of colour and fairy-tale exoticism, the music illustrates the famous tale from One Thousand and One Nights. With remarkable vividness, Nielsen paints in sound a bustling Eastern bazaar and mysterious caves, while the orchestra casts aside classical restraint and draws us in with hypnotic Oriental scales. Perhaps after hearing this concert, you will find that listening can conjure up images more vivid than anything a screen can offer.

The concert is intended for pupils in grades 7–8 of primary school and secondary-school students.

Admission is free.

Registration for the event will be via an online form and will open on Tuesday, 9 March 2027 at 2.00 pm. Places are limited and will be allocated on a first-come, first-served basis. Confirmation of participation will be sent by 12 March 2027.