Norwegian conductor Tabita Berglund leads the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra in a Nordic-leaning program opening with Stenhammar’s late-Romantic showpiece Excelsior!. Pianist Andrea Lam performs Tchaikovsky’s Piano Concerto No. 1, composed during a period of personal and professional upheaval, and famously rejected by pianist Nikolai Rubinstein before Hans von Bülow gave it a triumphant world premiere in Boston in 1875. The program concludes with Sibelius’s Symphony No. 2, composed during Finland’s period under Russian rule and strongly associated with the country’s national identity.

Limelight Editor’s Choice

Embark on a Nordic musical journey with Norwegian conductor Tabita Berglund, beginning with Wilhelm Stenhammar’s Excelsior! The music sounds cinematic, but the Swedish composer wrote it decades before the world had begun to experience the magic of the silver screen. Just over the border, Jean Sibelius enriched his Symphony No.2 with the heart of his Finnish homeland.

Melbourne pianist Andrea Lam brings this performance back home. You might have seen Lam as the star of hit ABC series The Piano, and now she’s performing with the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra as soloist. We’ve chosen a top-tier work for this top-tier pianist, Tchaikovsky’s Piano Concerto No.1. You’re bound to recognise it from the moment Lam starts playing those power chords that open the first movement. But if it’s new for you, you’ll be hard-pressed to find a better concert to hear this smashing music for the first time.