Lintu and Ibragimova play Nielsen & Sibelius

Finnish conductor Hannu Lintu fronts the Radio Philharmonic Orchestra in Nielsen's Fifth Symphony and accompanies Alina Ibragimova in Sibelius' Violin Concerto. Opening with an all-new work by Mathilde Wantenaar.

Violinist Alina Ibramigova plays Sibelius
"When you travel, a new world opens up to you; so it is when you step into the concert hall," said Malthilde Wantenaar. She enters this concert with a new composition, commissioned by AVROTROS. Next up is the British-Russian violinist Alina Ibragimova, who began her career as a six-year-old with the Bolshoi Orchestra in Moscow and remains one of the leading violinists of our time. She will solo in Sibelius' highly virtuosic Violin Concerto, which was still considered almost unplayable at its world premiere in 1904, but which today is on every star violinist's repertoire.

Hannu Lintu conducts Nielsen's Fifth Symphony
"When I travel from one concert hall to another, I can take a break from all the hustle and bustle of the stage," says Finnish conductor Hannu Lintu, who made his surprise debut with the New York Philharmonic Orchestra last season. He conducts the Radio Philharmonic Orchestra in Nielsen's Fifth Symphony. In the work's two movements, the composer takes you on a journey of great contrasts. He himself described it as "the division between light and darkness, the struggle between good and evil. On the score he wrote the cryptic phrase "dark silent forces, active forces. A symphony not easily forgotten.