A concert by the BBC National Orchestra of Wales conducted by Pietari Inkinen, featuring Wagner, Grieg and Sibelius, with Anna Geniushine on piano.
Pietari Inkinen takes the podium at BBC Hoddinott Hall on Thursday 25 February 2027, leading the BBC National Orchestra of Wales through a programme that moves from Romantic drama to Nordic clarity. It's part of the BBC NOW 2026-27 season, and if you can't make it into the hall, it's available as a livestream.
The evening opens with Richard Wagner's Tannhäuser overture, a piece that sets the scene by sketching out a deep inner conflict: the solemn, steady tread of the Pilgrims' Chorus on one side, and the intoxicating, swirling Venusberg on the other. From there, the focus shifts to the piano, with Anna Geniushine taking the lead for Edvard Grieg's Piano Concerto in A minor. It's a work of rhapsodic imagination and vivid colour, where tender lyricism alternates with dazzling virtuosity, and the whole thing evokes Nordic landscapes and mythical figures.
After the interval, the programme turns to Sibelius, with his Symphony No. 6 in D minor and Symphony No. 7 in C major played back to back. These two are a pair of distilled, continuous works that unfold as profound emotional statements, with the Seventh building towards a transcendent power. Together they reimagine symphonic form as something stripped back and focused, rather than sprawling.
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The concert starts at 19:30. Tickets are £15 for over 65s, £12 for disabled, and £7 for under 26s and students.
