Midwinter is a rarity – a seldom performed work by Wilhelm Stenhammar (which, prior to this occasion, had not been performed by the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra since the 1950s). The Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra is led by Chief Conductor Ryan Bancroft.

Stenhammar’s stay in Florence in 1906–07 marked an artistic turning point. There, he completed, among other works, Midwinter and his Second Piano Concerto. It is an intriguing contrast that he composed such a profoundly Nordic work as Midwinter in that setting.

In his biography of Wilhelm Stenhammar, Magnus Haglund writes that Midwinter “originated several years earlier, during a Christmastime visit in 1902 to Anders and Emma Zorn in Mora.” There, Stenhammar heard the fiddler Hins Anders perform a number of melodies, “including the chorale Den signade dag and Kol Erker’s polska, and he noted them down in his sketchbook”.

There are parallels between Stenhammar’s subsequent use of this folk material and Hugo Alfvén’s Midsummer Vigil from 1904, a work Stenhammar often conducted. Yet there is also an austerity in Midwinter that sets it apart from Alfvén’s example, perhaps bringing it closer to the true essence of folk music.