London Philharmonic Orchestra: 2006 - The new Bacchus

‘I am the new Bacchus, pressing out glorious wine for the human spirit’, proclaimed Ludwig van Beethoven, and although his Fourth Symphony is sometimes considered his most light-hearted, there’s no mistaking the ambition, the fantasy and the pure, electrifying inspiration that pulses through every note. Omer Meir Wellber knows just how to harness that energy, and when – as in Scriabin’s orgasmic Poem of Ecstasy – to set it free. And cellist Johannes Moser might be the finest current champion of Kaija Saariaho’s ravishing Notes on Light; a masterpiece from 2006 speaking across two centuries to its counterparts from 1806 and 1906.