The Helsinki Philharmonic celebrates Finnish music — With Jorma Panula, Maximilian Fagerlund, and Iris Candelaria

Jean Sibelius (1865 – 1957) is such an iconic figure in Finland that his birthday, December 8, is celebrated as Finnish Music Day. On the 160th anniversary of his birth, the Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra and an all-Finnish cast — including the legendary Jorma Panula, rising conducting star Maximilian Fagerlund, and soprano Iris Candelaria — come together to celebrate the music not only of Sibelius, but also of those who have continued to bear the standard of Finnish music up to the present day. Panula, a teacher of Esa-Pekka Salonen, Klaus Mäkelä, Tarmo Peltokoski, and many more of today's preeminent conductors, leads the first permanent Nordic orchestra in the poignant Requiem for Our Time by Einojuhani Rautavaara (1928 – 2016), Uuno Klami's (1900 – 1961) majestic Kalevala Suite based on the Finnish national epic, and a selection of sublime songs by Sibelius, performed by the sensational Candelaria. Talented teenager Maximililan Fagerlund, son of the internationally heralded composer Sebastian Fagerlund (1972 – ), "Finland's pre-eminent orchestral tone poet" (Gramophone), also steps in to conduct his father's Beneath, an atmospheric work for solo violin and orchestra composed in 2022.