Sibelius' Symphony No.2

Closing out this year’s Newbury Festival are the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra under the baton of Stephen Barlow.

Stephen Barlow is well known to Festival audiences but is especially known as an operatic conductor. He is joined by one of Britain’s leading opera singers, mezzo-soprano Christine Rice, for a performance of Wagner’s Wesendonk Leider, his only song cycle, a setting of poems by his mistress Mathilde Wesendonk which were composed during the height of their passionate love affair, at the same time as Tristan und Isolde. Like the opera, the songs are incredibly beautiful and filled with fiery longing and passionate desire.

After the interval, we will hear Sibelius’ Symphony No.2, building on the cycle which started in 2022 with Symphony No.5 and last year with Symphony No.1. The second symphony is full of Finnish national character which Sibelius himself described as “a struggle between death and salvation” and “a confession of the soul”.