Santtu-Matias Rouvali and Alice Sara Ott in conversation with Wenzel Fuchs (17 min.)

So many debuts are rare events in a single concert: not only did the conductor Santtu-Matias Rouvali and the pianist Alice Sara Ott appear for the first time with the Berliner Philharmoniker in September 2019; works by the composer Uuno Klami had also never been performed before in a concert by the orchestra. Like his compatriot Jean Sibelius, whose first symphony brought the concert to a close, Kami wrote a suite based on the Finnish Kalevala myth. and in this interval feature with principal clarinetist Wenzel Fuchs, conductor Rouvali explains why he included two movements from this composition in the programme of his debut concert with the Philharmoniker. Alice Sara Ott talks about her special affinity to Maurice Ravel’s G major Piano Concerto, which she believes can be played in the spirit of a chamber music-like dialogue between soloist and orchestra members and should sound different every night.