A SCANDANAVIAN musical feast was on offer from the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra on Wednesday night.

Music from composers Jean Sibelius and Edvard Grieg delighted the sold out audience at Poole Lighthouse, conducted by Kirill Karabits, now in his seventh year as BSO chief conductor.

The show opened with The Tempest by Sibelius, written to accompany Shakespeare's play during 1925-6.

Reviewers at the time noted: “Shakespeare and Sibelius, these two geniuses, have finally found one another”, and the orchestra's music did ample justice to the Bard's great work.

The work contains such depth and richness that it used the orchestra to its fullest.

While short in length, the work is full in body, power and drama. It was a wonderful live experience and thoroughly enjoyed by all.

While more work from Sibelius awaited in the second half, we were first treated to Grieg's Piano Concerto, his only concerto work, written in 1868 at the age of only 24.

The concerto was masterfully handled by young soloist Juho Pohjonen from Finland who was simply outstanding.

This very humble young man just dazzled with his incredible talent and thoughtful interpretation of such a beautiful concerto.

While the soloists who work with the BSO have all been of immense calibre, Pohjonen really stood out for me as one of absolute best.

Described by an American newspaper as “a beast, a daunting player”, and by another as “utterly delightful”, I can only echo this. We all saw something very magical in his performance tonight and for me it was the evening's highlight.

The second half returned us to the masterful Sibelius with his tone poem Tapiola and then Symphony No 7 in C Major.

Written as one continuous movement, it breaks with normal four-part symphonic style and has been described as “completely original in form”. Ably handled throughout, and with much deserved applause on completion, it had moments of pure grandeur, passion and tumult.

If you haven't made it to one of the BSO's 2015/16 season of concerts, you are really missing something very special.

Stephanie Hall