Sakari Oramo conducts Debussy and Shostakovich

The evening

“I have slandered the sea” said Debussy, after finishing 'La mer', but posterity has disagreed, and Debussy’s vibrant energy and ravishing colours surge find powerful echoes in Britain’s wave-lashed portraits of the North Sea. And what better complement for Britten than the First Cello Concerto by his great friend Shostakovich?

It’s the sort of music that finds the BBC Symphony Orchestra’s Chief Conductor Sakari Oramo in his element, and in this opening concert of the BBC Symphony Orchestra’s new season, he’s joined by Senja Rummukainen – a cellist praised for her “unbelievable power and intensity”. In her hands, Shostakovich’s concerto will make a powerful counterpart to Britten’s British classic and the rolling, rapturous seascape of 'La mer' - inspired by the art of Japanese master Hokusai, and written (at least in part) on the Sussex coast.