Composer Weekend – Ice Heart

Swedish composer Lisa Streich has garnered more and more international acclaim in recent years. At Composer Weekend 2024, she finally gets a major presentation in Sweden. Lisa Streich’s original scores are like maps of sound, and it is often as if she is “directing” the sound. She sees this as sculpting with an orchestra or ensemble, and a sort of choreography emerges from the sound, inviting not only listeners, but viewers as well.

In Segel (Sail), the music surges forth, whispering and breathing, occasionally whipping about – are these lines hitting a mast? In Flügel (Wings), Streich imagined the orchestra as a being with bodies in the middle and wings at the sides. How does she make it float and fly? Ishjärta (Ice Heart) paints a picture of the blood-filled warmth of a heart on one side, and its insulation within a shroud on the other.

The Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra is led by Israeli conductor Ilan Volkov and the festival opening also features a world premiere: a newly composed trumpet concerto with Italian-Hungarian Lucas Lipari-Mayer performing the solo part. Among others, he studied under Håkan Hardenberger and has been a member of French contemporary music specialists Ensemble Intercontemporain since 2018. 

“I feel that music has the ability to capture the truth. And I can experience the truth with Gustav Mahler,” says Lisa Streich who also included Blumine by Mahler – this beautiful andante movement is from the final version of his Symphony No. 1. “Music is the only thing that allows me to feel the truth of another human being,” says Streich.

***

Exhibition in the main foyer
Designgymnasiet in Stockholm presents textile artworks in white interpreting the piece Flügel by Lisa Streich.