Nordic Journey with Osmo Vänskä

Between Brahms and Nielsen runs an invisible thread linking two visions of Romanticism: the rigor of the former, the restless modernity of the latter.

With his Piano Concerto no. 2, Brahms sculpts music of classical architecture and restrained emotion, which Garrick Ohlsson unfolds with nobility and clarity. Nielsen’s Symphony no. 5, by contrast, is taut and turbulent, pierced by conflicts and silences—a mirror of the fractures of the early 20th century. Inheriting the Brahmsian spirit, Nielsen pushes its limits toward urgency and a quest for light. Under Osmo Vänskä’s direction, the OSM brings classicism and modernity, peace and tumult, into dialogue in a concert of striking intensity.

Johannes Brahms, Piano Concerto no. 2, op. 83

Carl Nielsen, Symphony no. 5, op. 50

— This concert is also presented as a “matinee” performance.