Joseph Haydn, the master of string quartets, composed around 70 string quartets in a 40-year period. They all contributed in different ways to establishing the string quartet in the late eighteenth century, and to refining the art in both technique and style.

Gringolts Quartet begins its programme with one of Haydn’s many quartets. The ensemble was formed ten years ago in Zürich by four musicians with roots in Russia, Armenia, Romania and Germany. With a shared passion for all the possibilities of string quartets, they play both the classical repertoire and newly composed music by composers including Marc-André Dalbavie, Jörg Widmann and Jens Joneleit. Highlights from recent seasons have been appearances at the festivals in Salzburg and Lucerne, and on stages such as Wigmore Hall in London and Louisiana in Copenhagen.

Gringolts Quartet also performs the piece Culla d’aria from 2004, by Finnish composer Lotta Wennäkoski, and Beethoven’s String Quartet No. 12 in E-flat Major, Op. 127, the first of his so-called late quartets. The music was composed towards the end of Beethoven’s life, and carries the weight of his lonely and isolated existence.

After studying at upper secondary school Södra Latins Gymnasium with Ann-Sofi Klingberg, Pontus Carron was accepted at the Royal College of Music, from which he graduated with a bachelor’s degree in spring 2015. He has spent the past few years in the master’s programme at the Royal College of Music/Edsberg, and this performance is his diploma concert.

Over the years, Pontus Carron has won prizes in international piano competitions such as ”Citta di San Doná di Piave Piano Competition” and Stockholm International Music Competition and received numerous scholarships from the Royal Swedish Academy of Music and the Swedish Order of Freemasons to name a few. He has performed in all of the Nordic countries, Germany, Spain and Italy, and been a soloist with orchestras such as Matteus symphony orchestra and Edberg’s chamber orchestra. He is also a highly active and frequently engaged chamber musician, and he has participated in festivals including the Båstad Chamber Music Festival and the Sandviken Chamber Music Festival, and together with the cellist Kristina Winiarski received 3^rd prize in the Swedish International Duo Competition 2017.

At this concert, he will perform four preludes by Claude Debussy, music by Slovenian composer Ana Kazimic and three personal favourites from Franz Schubert’s Six Moments Musicaux. As the final component before the intermission, we will also hear Dmitri Shostakovich’s Piano Trio No. 1, written by the composer at the age of 16.

Clarinetist, conductor and host Martin Fröst and the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra have had a close partnership for many years. The intent is to find new ways to present and combine music, all within a thematically cohesive entity.

First up in this multi-year project was Dollhouse in 2013. That performance was followed in 2015 by Genesis, a project that resulted in the album Roots (Sony Classical).

Retrotopia is the final performance in this multi-year, highly acclaimed and popular partnership.

The Stockholm Concert Hall at Hötorget is one of Sweden’s great architectural masterpieces. Created during a period of expansion in Stockholm, by the Swedish architect Ivar Tengbom, it opened in 1926. The Stockholm Concert Hall was built for the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra and has since the start been the dedicated venue for the Nobel Prize Award Ceremony as well as many other prestigious events.

The tour is in Swedish.