Konserthuset Stockholm

This concert will take place 24 February

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Ludvig Norman had enormous significance to Sweden’s music scene in the latter half of the nineteenth century. He had studied in Leipzig where, among others, Robert Schumann took note of him. In addition to being a composer, he was court conductor and introduced Wagner to Swedish opera audiences.

At the Royal College of Music, he taught composition, instrumentation and score reading. His students included Elfrida Andrée, Helena Munktell and Valborg Aulin, three composers who are now garnering well-deserved attention in our time. While, as their teacher, Norman’s influence can be heard in their work at times, they also composed in their own unique styles. This is particularly evident in the Three Romances for violin and piano by Elfrida Andrée, who was a composer as well as Sweden’s first female cathedral organist. 

After studying under Norman, Helena Munktell went to Paris, where she studied composition under Vincent d’Indy. She soon became a member of the Société Nationale de Musique which promoted French music. French traces emerge in her music, as in this piano trio, which – despite its French influence – has a German title: Kleine’s Trio.

Valborg Aulin was a famous figure in Stockholm’s music scene in the late nineteenth century. France made an impression on her as well, and one of her most famous pieces is the graceful, elegant and expressive Quartet in F Major.

The popular Lied Evenings subscription is now in its eighth season. Pianist Magnus Svensson has invited an exclusive assortment of musicians from the world’s opera and concert stages, giving us the chance to experience their vocal art in the intimacy of Grünewald Hall.

Soprano Cornelia Beskow has been acclaimed for her exceptional vocal tone, natural musicality and powerful stage presence. She has performed several major roles at the Royal Swedish Opera, such as Donna Elvira in Don Giovanni, Chrysothemis in Elektra and Tatyana in Eugene Onegin, as well as in Dead Man Walking, Der Rosenkavalier and The Cunning Little Vixen at the Royal Danish Theatre in Copenhagen. Her major breakthrough was as Sieglinde in the Valkyrie, when Wagner’s Ring Cycle was staged at the Royal Swedish Opera in 2017. That same year, she won all four prizes at the world’s largest Wagner competition in Aarhus.

Katija Dragojevic is one of Europe’s most coveted mezzo-sopranos. She has sung much of the lyrical mezzo repertoire on world stages such as La Scala in Milan, Covent Garden in London and Opéra Bastille in Paris, under the baton of conductors such as Daniel Barenboim, Nikolaus Harnoncourt and William Christie. She debuted as Kristina in Janacek’s The Makropulos Affair at La Monnaie in Brussels. At the Royal Swedish Opera in Stockholm, she has participated in Mozart’s The Marriage of Figaro, Richard Strauss’ Salome, Verdi’s Falstaff and the titular roles in Handel’s Serse and Bizet’s Carmen.

Versatile pianist Magnus Svensson specialises in the art of lied, and he has served as artistic director of Lied Evenings for several seasons. In addition to concerts in the Nordic region and elsewhere in Europe, he has also performed in Russia and the US. Magnus Svensson obtained his soloist diploma from the Royal College of Music in Stockholm, graduated with honours as top student, and then immersed himself in the study of lied interpretation in London. Since 2012, he has also worked at the Royal Swedish Academy of Music with re-publishing older Swedish music.

Frank Peter Zimmermann is widely acclaimed for his beautifully resonant violin-playing and he is considered one of the foremost violin soloists of our time. He has guest-performed at Konserthuset Stockholm many times before and is currently on the programme for the ongoing festivities in honour of the anniversary of Beethoven. At this concert, we will hear him in Robert Schumann’s passionate Violin Concerto.

American Alan Gilbert conducts the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra. He is chief conductor of the Hamburg NDR Elbphilharmonie, and the newly appointed music director of the Royal Swedish Opera in Stockholm. Gilbert was chief conductor of the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra 2000–2008 and he is now its Conductor Laureate. He was subsequently chief conductor of the New York Philharmonic Orchestra.

Here, he also leads the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra in French music: Ravel’s Une barque sur l'ocean (A Ship on the Sea) is music taken from what was originally a piano suite, Miroirs; Lili Boulanger’s D'un matin de printemps – one of the last pieces composed by this young genious who died all too soon; finally Roussel’s vibrant ballet music Bacchus et Ariane, Suite No 2. 

Amanda Ginsburg is a new rising star among Swedish jazz singers and winner of a Swedish Grammy Award 2019 for the album Jag har funderat på en sak (”I've Been Thinking About Something”). “I let my sound bask in the musical language of Nordic melancholy. My goal is to carefully safeguard the legacy of some of the most beloved names in Swedish jazz and songs,” says Amanda Ginsburg who was nominated Newcomer of the Year by P2 Jazzkatten, Swedish Radio’s annual tribute to Swedish jazz. She was lauded in the press for her first full-length album.

In September 2020 she released her second album: I det lilla händer det mesta (“It is in the small that most things take place”). “I look at this second album as a continuation of my first. It is filled with stories of everyday life and the slightly banal events that make up a major part of my life, and yours as well. I find an infinite inspiration in everyday life”

Inspired by Swedish icons such as Monica Zetterlund and Jan Johansson, and with a few splashes of humour from Hasse and Tage, Amanda Ginsburg conveys with unerring musical jazz sensibility something both direct and deeply personal. She performed with Konserthuset’s Blue House Jazz Orchestra in the spring of 2019. She now returns with her own band.