Few of the world’s major maestros can boast of a light carbon footprint. It’s hardly compatible with orchestra-hopping, yet some conductors manage better than others. Despite his busy international schedule, Sakari Oramo succeeds at least on a local level: whether in Helsinki or London, I’ve never known him not to turn up for an interview on a bicycle, and he still has his helmet in hand when we meet in the foyer of the Royal College of Music (RCM) before a preliminary rehearsal there for one of his 2024 BBC Proms programmes.
It helps that the Finnish conductor has in recent years focused the most substantial part of his work in Helsinki, his home when not travelling, and London, where for the last decade he has been chief conductor of the BBC Symphony Orchestra (BBC SO). These two bases come together in the third (25 Aug) of his) with little-known Sibelius () and the world premiere of a newly commissioned song cycle by Lara Poe ().
