The Symphoniker Hamburg plays a programme of Romantic music with a strong Scandinavian flavour: the Finnish musical landscapes of Jean Sibelius conjure up a wild nighttime ride towards the liberating sunrise. After the interval, the trip into the far north continues on a lighter note with Grieg’s »Symphonic Dances«. The French composer Debussy once said about Grieg’s music that it always made him feel »as if he were chewing a pink sweet filled with snow«! A large-scale orchestral work then brings the evening to a close: the profound message at the heart of Danish composer Carl Nielsen’s moving Fourth Symphony is that music is life, and as indelible as life itself. read less