In North America he has conducted the Cleveland Orchestra, Boston Symphony, Chicago Symphony, San Francisco Symphony, Pittsburgh Symphony, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Detroit Symphony, New York Philharmonic, as well as Orchestre symphonique de Montréal. His guest engagements have led him to the major orchestras worldwide, including the London Philharmonic Orchestra, Philharmonia Orchestra, Gewandhausorchester Leipzig, Munich Philharmonic, Dresden Staatskapelle, Bavarian Radio Symphony, Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, Rotterdam Philharmonic, Vienna Symphony, NHK Symphony Orchestra, Orchestre de Paris and the leading Scandinavian orchestras, among others. Recent LEAD! activities include orchestra projects at the Haute Ecole de Musique de Lausanne, Aurora Festival in Stockholm and with the Sofia Philharmonic Orchestra. Last but not least, he is a founding member of LEAD! The Orchestra Project, which aims to teach effective musical leadership and communication skills to aspiring young musicians within the context of orchestra playing, in workshops, concerts and masterclasses. He founded the Finnish Chamber Orchestra, the Artistic Advisor of which he still is, and also initiated the orchestra´s annual Tammisaari Festival, for which he is Artistic Director. He also served as Principal Guest Conductor of the BBC Symphony Orchestra and Artistic Advisor of the Lahti Symphony Orchestra. Earlier positions include the principal conductorships of the Scottish Chamber Orchestra, Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra, where he is now Conductor Laureate, and Toronto Symphony Orchestra. Previously, from 2006 to 2013, Jukka-Pekka Saraste was Music Director and Chief Conductor of the Oslo Philharmonic Orchestra, where he was subsequently appointed Conductor Laureate, the very first such title bestowed by that orchestra. The symphonic cycles of Sibelius, Brahms and Beethoven were exceptionally well received. During this time, the orchestra built up a reputation both at home and abroad, touring Austria, Spain, the Baltic, and Asia. He maintains a particularly strong connection to the works of Beethoven, Bruckner, Mahler, Shostakovich, Stravinsky and Sibelius.Īt the end of the 2018/2019 season, Jukka-Pekka Saraste ended his tenure as Chief Conductor of the WDR Symphony Orchestra in Cologne, where he had served since 2010. An artist of exceptional versatility and breadth and renowned for his objective approach, he feels a special affinity with the sound and style of late Romantic music. Born in Heinola, Finland, he began his career as a violinist before training as a conductor with Jorma Panula at the Sibelius Academy in Helsinki. The world that has been summoned out of the ether ends as a succession of huge, monolithic shouts of "Amen.Jukka-Pekka Saraste has established himself as one of the outstanding conductors of his generation, demonstrating remarkable musical depth and integrity. The last pages of the symphony offer a mighty apotheosis of the "swan theme," capped by six isolated, powerful chords. Sibelius brings the finale to climax by means of a grand slow-down, the reverse of the method he used in the first movement. This "swan theme," which emerges from the giddy rush of the tremolo strings, is the soul of the movement, and it's accompanied by a poignant, singing subject given out in octaves by the woodwinds and cellos. In the symphony's breathless moto perpetuo finale, Sibelius introduces one of his most memorable ideas: a bell-like tolling of chords among the four horns that is said to have come to him after he watched a flock of swans pass overhead. It's a stunning example of Sibelius' ability to build a symphonic movement on the dynamic development of a single idea, in this case the first four notes of the horn theme that opens the work. The first movement grows organically, from nebulous beginnings and the majestic emergence of a theme of compelling grandeur, through music of scherzo-like momentum surging with life and growing ever more fleet, to a final, exhilarating rush of energy. If one work could be said to characterize Jean Sibelius' mature style, it is the Fifth Symphony.