INTERVIEW | Sakari Oramo | "music is physical, emotional, and intellectual in equal measures"
In conversation with Sakari Oramo
Interview on 14 April 2026
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| Sakari Oramo, © Benjamin Ealovega |
If unforced excitement sounds like an oxymoron, this is also proof of a highly sophisticated and subtle art. When the Finnish conductor is on the podium, all seems in balance. Instrumental details co-exist with orchestral mass, technical precision with expressive depth, momentum with repose, and rhythmic alertness without excess.
I have always liked this "Oramo sound", as it were. Yet causation can play its tricks, and it was never entirely clear whether it was this sense of balance that I liked, or whether whatever one likes ultimately comes to seem balanced. Fortunately, after speaking with the conductor on a morning in April, the answer became clearer. Throughout the interview, the impression I formed of Sakari Oramo was that of a thoughtful musician, consciously balancing various musical considerations. It wasn't just what was directly said ("For me, music is physical, emotional, and intellectual in equal measures"), but also the way things were discussed when talking about repertoire choices, ideal sound, and communication among musicians. Just as the music conveyed in his concerts, Sakari Oramo's thoughts contained countless shades and sharp details, balanced with intent and purpose, yet always leaving room for a certain ineffable, evolving human quality.
Below is a transcript of the interview. Minor edits have been made to improve readability.
[Note. All interviews on the website are approved by the interviewee or manager prior to publication.]
I.
Young-Jin Hur (YH): Good morning, Maestro Sakari Oramo. Thank you for making time so early in the morning. How are you today?
Sakari Oramo (SO): Very well, thank you. I am perhaps a little bit tired, as I am in the middle of a series of concerts here in Cologne with the Gürzenich Orchestra, where I have been an artistic partner since this season and will be for five seasons. Concerts here are always great experiences, but it can be challenging to get going again early the next morning.
YH: I appreciate that you’ve still made time for this conversation, especially since you’ve been so busy of late. I noticed, for example, that you recently came back from an international tour, including your first-ever visit to Korea as a conductor. Did you enjoy the tour?
SO: I had a great time, yes. It was my first time ever in Korea; I had not been there before. The tour was with the BBC Symphony Orchestra. We started in China first, and then our first Korean date was in Busan in the newly built, beautiful concert hall. It is really a top-class hall, and Busan should be proud of the achievement of building it. I hear there is also an opera house going to be built on the neighbouring site, which is equally great. We then continued with two concerts at the Seoul Arts Center, followed by Seongnam and Daejeon. We had five dates in Korea in total. We had really, really wonderful concerts with great audiences.
We had great fun performing with the pianist Yeol Eum Son. Among other pieces, she performed what must have been the Korean premiere of Benjamin Britten’s Piano Concerto, which was her own choice and fitted the orchestra’s profile and planning perfectly. We also played a short piece called Eclogue by Gerald Finzi, for piano and strings, and she played Bartók's Third Piano Concerto. You could clearly notice that the Korean audience recognises and loves her very much. It’s always great for the orchestra to make music with someone who is so completely dedicated to the music they play, entirely immersed in the music at every single moment. It was just great. Overall, we had a varied program for different cities, including Brahms, Stravinsky, and Richard Strauss.
YH: Based on what I have seen from my Korean newsfeed, I can also confirm that people who went to your concerts were incredibly happy to hear you perform. I am curious to know what thoughts were behind such diverse, wide-ranging programming.
SO: This is what we do as an orchestra, and to play as wide a repertoire as possible is in our DNA. We always include contemporary British music, as we did this time by performing a piece by Judith Weir. Essentially, we usually don’t go on tour without this signature BBC idea of broadening the repertoire and bringing people things they know alongside things they don't know. It’s one of the big strengths of the orchestra, and it’s something we can do, maybe, more than other London orchestras. It is a huge part of the orchestra's identity.
YH: I see. I must say, I was impressed by how you presented fresh new programmes almost every evening. When you present the orchestra this way, presenting British pieces abroad, do you feel you are simultaneously playing the role of a cultural ambassador?
SO: Yes. When you travel with the BBC Symphony Orchestra, the name alone suggests that it represents Britain’s cultural strength and diversity. I think that is inherent in whatever we do, both in Britain and outside. This is perhaps even more true for us than for other touring British orchestras. For example, the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra represents Birmingham’s pride in its culture, and the London Symphony Orchestra has a strong international brand. However, the BBC Symphony Orchestra has a wider significance as part of the BBC’s main objectives to inform, entertain, and educate.
YH: That makes a lot of sense. On a more personal level, I also presume you wanted to represent your country of Finland through programming Sibelius.
SO: Absolutely. Sibelius’s music is incredibly popular in Asian countries. This trend may have started in Japan decades ago, but I am sure it has since spread around the region. There is something in the Nordic directness of Sibelius's music that seems to speak to people there, sometimes even more than traditional Central European Germanic music. While this type of Germanic music is, of course, well known and appreciated in Korea, I feel Sibelius has a more direct impact.
YH: I am glad to hear that. I am personally a huge supporter of Sibelius’ music and would love to see Sibelius being performed across the globe. You're also right about Japan having a big Sibelius tradition. I believe Akeo Watanabe was an important advocate of Sibelius back in the 60s and 70s.
SO: Yes, I actually had the honour of playing under Akeo Watanabe as a violinist when I was a student. He was a very big advocate of Sibelius, and I think his mother was Finnish.
YH: Yes, I think you’re right.
SO: Akeo Watanabe conducted Sibelius while I was substituting in an orchestra in Finland, and it was a significant experience because, back then, we didn't often see someone from outside of Finland conducting Sibelius's music in Finland, at least not with Finnish orchestras. To talk about Korea, there has been increasing exposure to Sibelius’ music through Finnish colleagues of mine like Osmo Vänskä and Pietari Inkinen, who have held permanent positions in Seoul recently.
[Note. You can find my interview with Osmo Vänskä here.]
YH: Are you proud of the fact that Sibelius’ music is more widespread now, in places so far away from Finland?
SO: Yes, I am very proud. I am also proud that my Finnish colleagues and friends are so successful worldwide in bringing the message of Sibelius’s music. I hope other great Finnish and Nordic composers will increasingly be discovered as well. Of course, when an orchestra is on tour, the repertoire is often a matter of agreement with local promoters, who understandably want to play it relatively safe in terms of ticket sales. When we tour, people often ask, “Why don’t you bring more daring contemporary music?”, and I tell them, “Okay, talk to your promoters, because we would love to bring more daring music, but the promoters don’t let us. They pay, so it is they who are taking the financial risk.” So, yes, it is important to cultivate and convince promoters in different touring territories.
YH: These practical considerations had not crossed my mind, but it makes sense. Now, in an ideal world, if you could choose one piece of Nordic music to perform regardless of ticket sales or promoters, what would it be?
SO: Well, Carl Nielsen comes to mind. He is somewhat known but not nearly as much as Sibelius in, for instance, Asia. I could also name others like Leevi Madetoja or Erkki Melartin, who wrote wonderful orchestral music, or contemporary names like Magnus Lindberg or Kaija Saariaho.
YH: I’m very glad you mentioned Madetoja, whose music I appreciate. Didn’t he write three symphonies?
SO: Yes, three symphonies. The Third Symphony is recognised as an unequivocal masterpiece, but it is a very undramatic piece that is lyrical, mature, and beautifully composed. So maybe it doesn’t have that direct appeal. So I would perhaps rather choose the Second Symphony, which is intense and dark, with the tragic events of 1918 in Finland as a background.
YH: I remember liking the First Symphony, and there are some really beautiful melodies. But it’s been a while since I heard this symphony.
SO: I don’t know the First Symphony as well. I should get to know it better.
II.
YH: Having gone to concerts in London since 2011, I have noticed a certain change in the sound of the BBC Symphony Orchestra since your arrival as Principal Conductor. Do you have an ideal sound in mind when you work with this orchestra?
SO: I have an ideal sound for them, but it isn't "my" sound in a way. It’s sort of the “direction” of my sound. But you know, the ideal sound that I have in my head and the actual sound also change according to the music we play. So, I cannot say I am looking for a single type of sound. The sound that I look for is relevant to the music we play at any given time. And I must give a shout-out to my predecessor Principal Conductor, Jiří Bělohlávek, the late, great Czech conductor. I think he started the process of bringing the sound of the orchestra more toward a European character without losing the strong British tradition that, I believe, still exists in the orchestra.
I want to develop the sound of any orchestra I conduct, especially when I have the chance to work with the same musicians for a long period of time. However, I base my work on the specific score and music at any given time. When we play Brahms, I don’t try to evoke the sound we make when we play Sibelius, for instance. They are different worlds. Some composers require pin-sharp, pin-needle precision, which the BBC Symphony Orchestra is very good at. But some composers, say, Brahms, while having to be very precise, still need this kind of broader, more relaxed attitude to sound and to timing as well. So, different pieces of music and styles have different senses of timing.
YH: Timing... as in tempo?
SO: Yes, as in tempo, but also as in the reaction of the orchestra to the conductor’s movements.
YH: What other things do you focus on in generating a certain orchestral sound?
SO: The reaction between the instruments inside the orchestra is important. When you play Bach, you always listen to the bass, but in Romantic music, you listen to the melody. And the melody player should listen to the middle parts, and so on. It’s a constant cycle of different interfaces inside the ensemble. This work is long-term and slow, but I’ve noticed this since my days in Birmingham, when I started after Sir Simon Rattle in 1998. This work does bear fruit, however, and it does relate to any classical musician’s instincts of wanting to perform better than their previous performance.
Here in Cologne with the Gürzenich Orchestra, I’m working with a fantastic orchestra. They are an opera orchestra, so they have an intrinsically different attitude toward playing. It is very situation-based because, in an opera performance, they must react quickly to the singers. If a singer is short of breath, the orchestra has to accelerate, going against what the score says. In other words, this orchestra has the capability to react immensely quickly to changes in the musical landscape, which is a great virtue. On the other hand, however, most opera orchestras have a tendency to forget that they also have to make a sound themselves.
YH: What do you mean?
SO: They sometimes forget that they have to physically produce a sound of their own, rather than just supporting and wrapping the singing voices in warmth. And this is what I am trying to achieve and encourage here in Cologne.
YH: When you want to change the orchestral sound, how do you convey this to the musicians? I imagine it’s not as simple as simply telling the orchestra to play louder, in forte.
SO: It depends very much on the context. Forte is a relative term, and so are mezzo piano and all other dynamic signs. I mostly try to achieve it through my hand motions, which I vary based on what I hear and how I react to what I hear. If a forte is too tame, then I give it more physical force. I also try to make players pay attention to what I do in the moment. This is perhaps easier with an opera orchestra than a radio orchestra. Radio orchestras like the BBC Symphony Orchestra are focused on precision and perfection, with a strong sense of adherence to the score, because everything they play is recorded and available to stream for years, long after we have died. These conducting techniques or habits come to you long before you even realise that they have developed.
III.
SO: Yes, the complexity of performing orchestral music nowadays is that the repertoire is so broad. It encompasses so many styles, from Baroque to contemporary, experimental, and even electronic music. And let’s not forget, of course, the lighter side, like popular music. In order to navigate that stylistic jungle, it is important to diversify the sound.
YH: Do you believe orchestras nowadays operate on different standards or sounds compared to orchestras from the past?
SO: Yes, absolutely. I very much think this is what is happening. You can sense this from the education system already. The younger generation of musicians feels almost more at home with contemporary music, Viennese Classical, and Baroque music, rather than the style of the Romantic era. Education has changed in the last, shall we say, 20 years. When I studied in the 70s and 80s, the Romantic style of playing was actually all we were taught. I am trained as a violinist, and even for Bach, we were made to play it in quite a Romantic way. This kind of Bach playing was very serious. A teacher even told me that Bach has no humour, which is, of course, completely wrong (SO laughs). The main aim was to create a universal sound that is mainly suitable for Brahms' violin sonatas, and the violin concertos by Sibelius, Mendelssohn, and Tchaikovsky. That was the main diet. As a result, this was very much fed into the characters of the orchestras as well back then. Now, there’s been quite a big generational change, at least in the northern countries, where there is an influx of people who studied in the 21st century and are educated very differently.
YH: Could one say that we are generally moving away from the Romantic style?
SO: Yes, I have made that observation, and it’s quite fascinating, actually, to see this and to work with it. Achieving that Romantic style is something you have to work quite hard on these days. My analysis is that it comes from this general trend to move away from the Romantic style. I think this mostly applies to string players, who are the core of an orchestra’s sound. The new generation of string players can phrase really intelligently. They can, you know, listen, they can adjust their playing easily, they can phrase Baroque music beautifully with this kind of schwung element. But this long, sustained line of the Romantic style is difficult to achieve.
YH: Given that trends will always exist, do you think that sometime in the future, maybe in 60 years, this Romantic way of playing will make a comeback? (YH laughs)
SO: I hope we will still have orchestras in 60 years! (both laugh) I am definitely not a pessimist. I couldn’t be, because I see the new audiences in London after the pandemic. We have a much larger, younger, and more reactive audience now, something that we couldn’t even imagine in 2019. For some reason, the traditional, older audiences have been replaced with a newer type of audience. For example, the BBC Symphony Orchestra used to have this very committed, “ground audience”, but somehow this has all changed now. We now have more single tickets, more people coming to have a good evening out. So the appreciation is there, but it’s a different kind of appreciation. It feels like appreciation is now based more on the experience rather than knowledge.
To add to that, in the past, we had fans who really, really knew the contemporary music of Oliver Knussen and Harrison Birtwistle. Nowadays, we can still play their music and have to perform it, but it now goes to a new kind of target audience.
YH: Oh, that is an interesting observation you made at the end. So you will continue to stage contemporary music, and people will hopefully continue to appreciate it.
SO: We very much want to keep contemporary music from Britain and worldwide as part of our core. It’s a very important thing we do.
Of course, contemporary music is such a wild, open field now. There is a strong tendency toward this kind of ambient, "easy listening" contemporary music that brands itself as contemporary music, but actually is not all that demanding. They are orchestral, concert music that sounds like film music, let’s put it that way. And this kind of really demanding, structural music, I think, has slightly suffered. It’s not so much there anymore.
YH: As Principal Conductor of the BBC Symphony Orchestra, do you think it is our responsibility to reflect this audience tendency and play more of these “ambient” pieces, or keep a balance and choose pieces that you believe people ought to hear? I feel it can go either way.
SO: It can go either way, yes. But I would like to think that we have to be a sort of gatekeeper. I, together with the administration of the orchestra, are the gatekeepers to ensure that our offerings always hold a certain standard and that we don’t start offering too much of what is immediately popular. Of course, it is hard to categorise music because there are many nuances to it, but we don’t want to play this kind of ambient style, easy music, so much.
YH: This is all so fascinating. When it comes to setting standards through repertoire decisions, how much decision power do you have, compared to the orchestra administration?
SO: It is always a collaboration. Of course, conductors play a big role. Guest conductors also suggest things when they know they are coming to play with the BBC Symphony Orchestra. These guest conductors might suggest things we had no idea about. No single person can have a full picture of the contemporary field, and just because I haven’t heard about the composer doesn’t mean that the composer is bad. This simply means I don’t know the composer, and that is natural. The orchestra also has a programme director who has a very big role. The players also have a role, and they have a committee that discusses repertoire and is also free to make suggestions. But the final decision lies with the programme director and me. Of course, when we play at the BBC Proms, the BBC Proms have a say as well.
IV.
YH: Looking at your career, do you feel that your musical priorities have changed over the years?
SO: Hmm. Yes and no. As with any person, my points of interest slightly change and evolve over time. They are also partly dictated by the feeling of what I think is good and useful for the orchestra at the time, in terms of improving the ensemble further and giving them a varied diet of music. Regarding my own interests, for quite a long time, I’ve been a little bit careful about conducting too much Richard Strauss.
YH: How so?
SO: The virtuosic qualities of his music are undeniable, but I find its content sometimes a bit weak. But nowadays, I have grown to understand his music a little bit more, and it’s come closer to me. So I like to programme it a little more.
YH: When you don’t fully understand a piece, do you sometimes stage it more often in order to understand it better?
SO: I do get that, yes. And I used to do that, especially when I was the chief conductor of the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra. Nowadays, all their concerts are on the internet, but this was before the presence of online concerts, so I could experiment a bit with the repertoire. It was really nice in a way, but I couldn’t do the same in London because we might lose all our audience (both laugh), or at least that is always a big consideration.
YH: Fair enough. All right, I’d like to ask you one final question. Do you have a particular musical philosophy, and is beauty part of it?
SO: Beauty is definitely part of it. Emotion is also a big part of it. For me, music is physical, emotional, and intellectual in equal measures. I don't downplay the intellectual side because I think it is the basis of high-quality music, music that has intellectual strength and content. It’s a matter of taste, of course, but I find it quite important to have these elements in balance.
Nielsen is strong because he has all three in balance. We see this across his whole career, which makes me think he’s certainly an overlooked genius in many ways. Sibelius varies. His early works have more emotion and beauty than intellect, and they’re not quite in balance. But his later works, like Tapiola, and the Fifth, Sixth, and Seventh Symphonies, are beautifully balanced. Brahms and Elgar are other good examples where there is great balance between the three elements. Especially thinking of Elgar, there’s so much beauty and emotion in abundance, but also lots of intellect. Everything builds on top of each other (SO laughs). That’s what makes his music substantial, but sometimes a bit hard to swallow (SO laughs). I love Elgar’s music to bits, and I realise there's so much of everything every time I play his music (SO laughs). If we think about contemporary or recently deceased composers, I can think of Kaija Saariaho. Her music had incredible amounts of these three elements in perfect harmony. There is a sense of colour, beauty, not just of sound but also dramatic development.
YH: That’s interesting that you discuss this, because as an audience member at your concerts, I believe you are one of the few conductors from whom I get this sense of balance. Which is why I enjoy your concerts so much. I very much appreciate that, and I want to thank you.
SO: Thank you. I appreciate this. This sense of balance is an important basis for me. After all, I am the son of a pianist and a musicologist (both laugh), so I have both sides.
YH: Ah, how fascinating. I would have loved to continue, but that is all the time I have, and I think this is a good place to stop. I want to thank you again for making time, despite your busy schedule.
SO: Thank you very much, and I am happy for us to continue our conversation one day.
YH: That is very much appreciated. Maybe we can do that one day, indeed. Thank you very much for your time, and I hope you have a lovely day.
SO: Thank you, and you, too! Good-bye.
YH: Good-bye.
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| Sakari Oramo, © BBC Sarah Louise Bennett |
Young-Jin Hur
@yjhur1885
© Where Cherries Ripen / Young-Jin Hur