When he was a kid navigating the internet, Finnish conductor Tarmo Peltokoski discovered a 2-minute clip of Wagner on YouTube and fell in love. Now you can see him conducting Sibelius’ entire First Symphony on YouTube. Better yet, you can hear the young conducting prodigy lead the NSO in Sibelius’ First Symphony live at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts this week! You'll be captivated by the beauty of this lush symphony which opens with an expansive clarinet solo floating over a bed of rumbling timpani.
And speaking of YouTube, check out a clip that's gone viral on the internet: Tarmo Peltokoski sitting down at the piano with Yuja Wang to play Brahms’ Hungarian Dance No.5 as an encore (Finnish conductors train as instrumentalists, and Peltokoski is an accomplished pianist). Perhaps they'll treat Washington audiences to such an encore as well.
Yuja will play or should I say, “attack” Bartok’s Piano Concerto No.2, considered one of the most difficult pieces in the repertoire. Even the New York Philharmonic couldn't learn it in time for the premiere back in the early 1930’s. Renowned pianists complain of “finger-breaking...keyboard covered in blood” “nearly paralyzed hands”. But this incredibly exciting work is no match for Yuja Wang, the “daredevil” pianist. The concerto has a singular form. The first movement features only brass, woodwinds, and percussion. Sibelius adds the strings in the second movement, and only the third movement has the full orchestra. But that incredible piano playsthroughout.
Oh, and Tarmo Peltokoski, who conducted his first Ring Cycle last year at the age of 22, will also get to conduct the NSO in his first love, Wagner’s Prelude to Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg, a celebration of the art of music, and the triumph of a new generation of musicians--the perfect opening to a truly exhilarating concert.
Tarmo Peltokoski, conductor
Yuja Wang, piano
Richard Wagner: Prelude to Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg
Béla Bartók: Piano Concerto No.2
Jean Sibelius: Symphony No.1
WETA Passport
Stream tens of thousands of hours of your PBS and local favorites with WETA Passport whenever and wherever you want. Catch up on a single episode or binge-watch full seasons before they air on TV.