The BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra are ed by Chief Conductor Ryan Wigglesworth and horn player Stefan Dohr for music by Beethoven, Sibelius and Hans Abrahamsen.
“God, what beauty!”. Once upon a time in Finland, Sibelius saw a flight of swans and felt his imagination take wing. That’s the story behind the unforgettable horn theme that crowns his Fifth Symphony: music as astonishing, and as inevitable, as nature itself. Those vaulting horns are a spine-tingling way to end the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra's 2025/26 concert season. So what could be more natural than Chief Conductor Ryan Wigglesworth inviting Stefan Dohr, a legend among living horn players, to perform another Scandinavian masterpiece: the playful, utterly original concerto that the SSO's Composer in Association (and master-storyteller) Hans Abrahamsen wrote especially for him. Beethoven ties it all together, with wit, splendour and irrepressible life-force.
Broadcast live from City Halls, Glasgow with Kate Molleson presenting.
Beethoven: Symphony No. 1 in C major
Hans Abrahamsen: Concerto for Horn and Orchestra
interval
Beethoven: Overture 'Namensfeier', Op 115
Sibelius: Symphony No. 5 in E flat major
Stefan Dohr, horn
Ryan Wigglesworth, conductor
BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra
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