The ISO took a musical trip to Scandinavia this past weekend, and it proved to be a successful journey. One of his most popular works, Jean Sibelius’ Finlandia, has exciting themes and a rich full orchestration, and Venzago gave it a spirited reading. American-born pianist Garrick Ohlsson joined them for Edvard Grieg’s one and only piano concerto, and displayed a very clean and controlled performance. His playing was thoughtful and deliberate — almost safe actually, yet that resulted in an amazing clarity of sound. The real meat of the evening, however, had to be the middle work, Danish composer Carl Nielsen’s Symphony no. 6. Venzago steered the orchestra through their first ever performance of this wild, unpredictable and wickedly difficult symphony, and showcased the fantastic musical journey and progression that he is taking this orchestra on. The only section that seemed hesitant about this journey however are the cellos. They sounded (and even looked) unable to handle Nielsen’s difficult parts.