“Continue down the road until there is no road any more. There you will find him.” The instructions for my meeting with Santtu-Matias Rouvali sound like something from a fairytale, as if I am off to meet Rumpelstiltskin, not the hottest conductor in Finland.
Thankfully, the route guidance given to me by the boss of Rouvali’s home orchestra, the Tampere Philharmonic, turns out to be correct and so (with a little help from the sat-nav) I drive out of Tampere, skirt the banks of pretty Lake Roine, take the road less travelled and watch it peter out. Voilà.
Here is the summer house where Rouvali and his cellist girlfriend, Elina Sipila, are staying. The traditional pinewood sauna looks out on to the lake. Lingonberries (no