Exclusive: Jukka-Pekka Saraste & WDR Sinfonieorchester Köln

Jukka-Pekka Saraste, born in southern Finland in 1959 and principal conductor of the WDR Sinfonieorchester Köln since 2010, doesn’t just love the traditional repertoire - Saraste began his career with a predominant focus on contemporary music. While still a student, he and his countryman Esa-Pekka Salonen founded an orchestra in Helsinki especially for the performance of new avant-garde compositions.

The new recordings, released exclusively on IDAGIO and in lossless audio, combine full-bodied traditional repertoire - in particular a delightful Central European theme formed by the symphonic works of Beethoven and Brahms - with a Scandinavian flavour. Three works from Saraste’s countryman Jean Sibelius stand alongside three symphonies by the great Danish composer Carl Nielsen.

In an interview, Saraste once expressed the importance of playing Beethoven’s symphonies with his orchestra in Köln. When asked what constitutes a good interpretation of Beethoven, Saraste explained: "Sometimes the orchestra responds a little too slowly. That cannot happen with Beethoven - the music needs activity and drive. It may take some time for the musicians to implement this. There are orchestras that play Ravel and Debussy very well, but cannot play Beethoven at all. Or Brahms. Therefore I am delighted to be working with the WDR Sinfonieorchester Köln!"