Carl Nielsen looked life straight in the face, and he never blinked: how many composers put their own heart attack into music? But no matter how startling, how vivid, or how outright eccentric Nielsen's Sixth Symphony gets, it's never depressing: this is music of life, not death. Everyone needs to hear it, and there's no better guide than our principal guest conductor John Storgårds, just as there's no more impassioned champion of Shostakovich's dark political thriller of a First Violin Concerto than the brilliant young concertmaster of the Berlin Philharmonic, Guy Braunstein.
First, however, Storgårds celebrates his 50th birthday with a fairy tale from his native Finland - and rediscovers the irresistible Keltic Suite by Mancunian composer John Foulds. You'll be humming it all week!
