”Martin Fröst delivers musical delights and hair-raising beauty”, wrote the Swedish newspaper Dagens Nyheter after the premiere of Xodus, giving the performance a top rating: 5/5.  

In recent years, clarinettist and conductor Martin Fröst has carried out a number of celebrated projects with the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra. With Dollhouse, Genesis and Retrotopia – the latter two can still be streamed on Konserthuset Play – he expanded the concept of what a concert can be. 

In parallel with his career as one of the world’s absolute foremost clarinet soloists, admired for his innovative and clever programming, Martin Fröst has also focused on conducting in recent years, and he is the chief conductor of the Swedish Chamber Orchestra.

With Xodus (The Way Out Lies Within) we encounter something of a mixed-media piece, in which words and live-painted images dawn together with the music. Contrasting musical pieces, both new and older, are put together seamlessly. ”You move from one room to another”, Martin Fröst says. 

The images are created in real-time by the artist Jesper Waldersten, and appear on a large screen. Waldersten has also written with the texts (English subtitles available), in collaboration with Martin Fröst. Waldersten is known to many through his prize-winning illustrations in publications such as Dagens Nyheter in the early 2000s and is a unique artist. With an inimitable touch and deft mix of words, images, music and brush strokes, he creates a world of his own, characterized by sharp satire, furious darkness and warm humour.

Stage direction and light design by Linus Fellbom, internationally active in the fields of theatre and opera. On numerous occasions Fellbom has worked at the Konserthuset Stockholm as well, for instance in the previous shows with Martin Fröst and the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra.