The visual concert Mythos unites music and the art of lighting to form a concert experience for both the eye and the ear. Seven seldom-performed works by Jean Sibelius have been assembled for the State Orchestra of Lower Saxony to form a musical arc: tone poems, music for the theatre and two numbers for soprano and orchestra. With several screens, numerous projectors and installative light objects, the concert stage at the Opera House is transformed into a space for acoustic and visual happenings. General Music Director Stephan Zilias will conduct these rarely performed treasures from the expansive oeuvre of Jean Sibelius. Together with video artist Tal Rosner and lighting designer Elana Siberski, he will create a concert experience to fascinate both eye and ear.

Composer Jean Sibelius is a puzzling personality: Born into a Swedish-speaking family in Hämeenlinna, Finland, he grew up far from all cultural centres, and yet he was driven by an inner urge towards music. Unimpressed by a year of studies in each Berlin and Vienna, he shaped a musical language of his very own and became the national composer of the young country of Finland. He wrote seven symphonies, symphonic poems and music for the theatre before he fell into an erratic artistic silence for the last 28 years of his life.

Sibelius’ musical language is unprecedented and singular with its penchant for low registers, the resonance of Finland’s nature in the expansiveness of its scores, its roots in the mythical material of the national epos Kalevala.

The musical journey will lead from Sibelius’ first symphonic poem En Saga (A Saga) Op. 9 to the dramatic Night Ride and Sunrise Op. 55. Between these two is a string of pearls featuring Scene with Cranes from the theatre music Kuolema (Death), a fascinating musical echo of nature long preceding the bird music of Olivier Messiaen; the captivating Ballade from the theatre music King Kristian II,: the mythical Swan of Tuonela that circles Tuonela, the island of the dead in the Kalevala, with a famous solo for English horn; as well as two works for soprano and orchestra: the early Arioso Op. 3 and the later musical poem Luonnotar Op. 70 about the origin of the stars, emerging from the womb of the eponymous daughter of the heavens. The soprano part will be sung by company member Kiandra Howarth, who has been celebrated in Hanover for her performance of Rusalka and other roles.