Sibelius Academy Symphony Orchestra

(Esa-Pekka Salonen and the Sibelius Academy Symphony Orchestra. Much more color than the usual orchestra black dresses up there on the stage.)

TUES, OCT 23 - As part of the LA Phil's International Youth Symphony Orchestra Festival - and also the Sibelius Unbound Festival - the Sibelius Academy Symphony Orchestra, consisting of young conservatory musicians at the Sibelius Academy in Helsinki, performed an ambitious program on Tuesday night under the baton of Esa-Pekka Salonen, who is himself an alum of the Sibelius Academy. The program included Magnus Lindberg's Chorale, composed in 2002; Prokofiev's Piano Concerto No. 5, written in 1932; and Sibelius' Lemminkäinen Suite, from 1893 and revised up until 1954 - all music touching the 20th century and more modern fare. They sounded great, and I enjoyed the chance to hear Lemminkäinen, since I'd heard a lot about the piece but hadn't yet actually heard it! The audience was overly clap happy last night... they clapped in between each movement, which usually only drives traditionalists nuts, but on Tuesday it went beyond the usual smatterings of unknowing applause to a kind of prolonged, disruptive, "is this over?" anticipation. Halfway through Lemminkäinen, a clearly irked Esa-Pekka (who until that point had been smiling at the applause) turned to the audience and said, "I would like to suggest that we not applaud until the very end of the piece, which I will clearly indicate." At the end of the next movement, people clapped again anyway, and EPS looked irked again. But evidently, he wasn't irked enough for two rousing encores and genuine-enough looking pride for the orchestra. Anyway, this is actually the first Sibelius Unbound concert I was able to attend! Stupid scheduling issues popped up for the last three concerts, but I'm planning on going to tomorrow night's performance to catch the end of it all. Next week: the International Youth Symphony Orchestra Festival continues with the Simon Bolivar National Youth Orchestra of Venezuela. If you haven't watched their rousing YouTube video yet, watch it now. And I did see Mark Morris' Mozart Dances on Sunday night, thoughts forthcoming.