Programme

The concert can be seen at Konserthuset Play

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World artists Andris Nelsons and Håkan Hardenberger probably need no futher introduction. Hardenberger is a guest at Konserthuset on a regular basis, and is  considered one of the foremost trumpet players in classical music. Furthermore, he has expanded the repertoire through countless commissions and premieres. Latvian conductor Andris Nelsons is the chief conductor of both Boston Symphony Orchestra and Leipzig Gewandhausorchester. The last time he conducted the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra was in 2014, in connection with the Nobel Prize Concert. 

Mieczyslaw Weinberg’s (1919–96) music has only after the passing of the composer been discovered properly in the western world. The Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra performed a piece by Weinberg for the first time ever at the concert with Mirga in Februari 2021. There's an enormous amount of music by this productive composer, for instance 26 symphonies and 17 string quartets. The solo concertos aren’t that many, but the trumpet concerto of 1967 is arguably one of his most substantial pieces in this genre. It is one of Weinberg’s most varied works from this period, with expressions ranging from the modernist to the sardonic. His friend and colleague Dmitri Shostakovich named this rich three movement piece a ”symphony for trumpet and orchestra”. Hardenberger and Nelsons recently issued a dvd recording (Accentus/Naxos) of Weinberg’s Trumpet Concerto with the Leipzig Gewandhausorchester.

When Dvorák had his international breakthrough with the Symphony No 6, he was already an experienced symphonist. In the five earlier symphonies he  developed his craft by borrowing from other masters, arriving at a personal mix of influences. Undoubtedly, traits of Brahms as well as Schubert and Beethoven are to be recognized in the sixth as well, but also elements that are Dvorák’s own. For instance in the third movement, which evokes a furiant; a swirling Bohemian folk dance. The Symphony No 6 is hence something of a key work, where Dvorák further developed the unique style that is later present the symphonies nos 7–9.  

New symphony composed by Benjamin Staern.

Benjamin Staern is one of Sweden’s most played and popular composers. His music is deeply personal and characterised by a powerfully emotional sound. For Benjamin Staern, colour is tangible: he is a synesthete – sounds and tones appear to him as specific colours, a trait which is highly present in his compositions.

His oeuvre includes everything from orchestral and chamber music to solo pieces and electroacoustic music. Many orchestras and ensembles all over Europe and Asia have performed his music. He has also received numerous awards and distinctions, including the Christ Johnson Prize in 2012, Sweden’s most prestigious award for composers.

Sånger om bländvit kärlek (Songs of Dazzling Love) was commissioned by the Helsingborg Symphony Orchestra for the alto Anna Larsson. Staern describes the piece as a musical drama in five episodes. It is about spontaneously falling in love, intimacy, longing, betrayal and finally, unearthly, unattainable, dazzling love. The five poems set to music were written by Karin Boye.

Benjamin Staern felt compelled to compose his second symphony upon hearing and becoming fascinated by Lili Boulanger’s D’un soir triste in conductor Cathrine Winnes’ SVT series, She Composes Like a Man. “My symphony is based on certain fragments from Boulanger’s piece, but I’ve made sort of a remix,” he says. “It is weightless, meditative music. A transmigration to Paradise, you might say.”

The symphony was commissioned by the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra, and Norwegian Cathrine Winnes herself – chief conductor of the Swedish Wind Ensemble – will lead the orchestra. We will also hear the inspiration for the symphony, Lili Boulanger’s D’un soir triste, which grows from a quiet, heavily progressing introduction into overpowering strength.

The concert can be seen at Konserthuset Play

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The music of American violinist and composer Marc O’Connor stands out, with its vibrant blend of bluegrass, country, jazz and classical. Emily’s Reel is dedicated to the daughter of cellist Yo-Yo Ma as a thank-you to Ma for playing O’Connor’s Appalachia Waltz as an encore number at a concert of Bach’s cello suites. The music is generally swinging and masterful, with occasional hints of melancholy, as in Old Country Fairy Tale.

In the middle of the concert, the series of songs by O’Connor will be broken up with music by Augusta Read Thomas, who is often considered one of today’s most influential American composers. In Silent Moon, she evocatively conveys a winter landscape at night, illuminated only by the tranquil moon. She says that calm is a prerequisite for recreating the energy released when the light returns.

Masterful clarinet concerto by Benjamin Staern.

Benjamin Staern is one of Sweden’s most played and popular composers. His music is deeply personal and characterised by a powerfully emotional sound. For Benjamin Staern, colour is tangible: he is a synesthete – sounds and tones appear to him as specific colours, a trait which is highly present in his compositions.

His oeuvre includes everything from orchestral and chamber music to solo pieces and electroacoustic music. Many orchestras and ensembles all over Europe and Asia have performed his music. He has also received numerous awards and distinctions, including the Christ Johnson Prize in 2012, Sweden’s most prestigious award for composers.

Benjamin Staern says that Wave Movements gradually evolves as the piece progresses. “It’s like watching a wave wash over you, an unequalled drama, and embodying the reflectiveness of a mirror.” The music is composed in three parts. First is a rhythmic and evocative challenge, which is followed by a melodic, mysterious middle section. It is all summarised in a concluding chorale that merges previous elements.

The clarinet concerto Worried Souls was composed for Karin Dornbusch and received the Christ Johnson Prize in 2012, Sweden’s most prestigious award for composers, presented by the Royal Swedish Academy of Music. From the statement: “With astounding capability, he handles grand musical forms with originality and a personal approach, in a piece infused with richly varied orchestration and dazzling virtuosity in the solo section.”

The soloist at this concert also performed the solo at the world premiere of the piece: internationally active Swedish clarinettist Karin Dornbusch. She has given many acclaimed concerts and her recordings of clarinet concertos by Nielsen, Kaipainen and Fernström earned her a Grammis Award nomination in the category of Classical Soloist of the Year.

Benjamin Staern’s first symphony, Polar Vortex, was commissioned by the Royal Swedish Academy of Music in 2012 as a gift to the symphony orchestras of Norrköping, Helsingborg and Gävle in celebration of their centennials. This dramatically tinged music is a message to the world to recognise climate change. The name Polar Vortex refers to a weather phenomenon in which powerful, swirling winds at the Earth’s poles cause extreme cold.

We will welcome the Gävle Symphony Orchestra, led by Emil Eliasson, one of Sweden’s most celebrated young conductors.

Meet the musicians up close in Grünewald Hall – and discover orchestral instruments in a classical concert with a music teacher. 

Meet the musicians up close in Grünewald Hall – and discover orchestral instruments in a classical concert with a music teacher. 

New symphony composed by Benjamin Staern.

Benjamin Staern is one of Sweden’s most played and popular composers. His music is deeply personal and characterised by a powerfully emotional sound. For Benjamin Staern, colour is tangible: he is a synesthete – sounds and tones appear to him as specific colours, a trait which is highly present in his compositions.

His oeuvre includes everything from orchestral and chamber music to solo pieces and electroacoustic music. Many orchestras and ensembles all over Europe and Asia have performed his music. He has also received numerous awards and distinctions, including the Christ Johnson Prize in 2012, Sweden’s most prestigious award for composers.

Sånger om bländvit kärlek (Songs of Dazzling Love) was commissioned by the Helsingborg Symphony Orchestra for the alto Anna Larsson. Staern describes the piece as a musical drama in five episodes. It is about spontaneously falling in love, intimacy, longing, betrayal and finally, unearthly, unattainable, dazzling love. The five poems set to music were written by Karin Boye.

Benjamin Staern felt compelled to compose his second symphony upon hearing and becoming fascinated by Lili Boulanger’s D’un soir triste in conductor Cathrine Winnes’ SVT series, She Composes Like a Man. “My symphony is based on certain fragments from Boulanger’s piece, but I’ve made sort of a remix,” he says. “It is weightless, meditative music. A transmigration to Paradise, you might say.”

The symphony was commissioned by the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra, and Norwegian Cathrine Winnes herself – chief conductor of the Swedish Wind Ensemble – will lead the orchestra. We will also hear the inspiration for the symphony, Lili Boulanger’s D’un soir triste, which grows from a quiet, heavily progressing introduction into overpowering strength.

Benjamin Staern’s Composer Weekend concludes with chamber music.

Benjamin Staern is one of Sweden’s most played and popular composers. His music is deeply personal and characterised by a powerfully emotional sound. For Benjamin Staern, colour is tangible: he is a synesthete – sounds and tones appear to him as specific colours, a trait which is highly present in his compositions.

His oeuvre includes everything from orchestral and chamber music to solo pieces and electroacoustic music. Many orchestras and ensembles all over Europe and Asia have performed his music. He has also received numerous awards and distinctions, including the Christ Johnson Prize in 2012, Sweden’s most prestigious award for composers.

The fact that music is colour for Benjamin Staern is central to the chamber opera Hilma – An Opera About Hidden Art, which had its world premiere at Moderna Museet in Stockholm in 2019. The libretto was composed by Mira Bartov and is about the life of artist Hilma af Klint. The opera has also been performed at the Guggenheim Museum in New York. Three interludes from the opera will be performed at this concert. 

Salomos Sång (Song of Solomon) was commissioned by Lizzie Oved Scheja and Jewish Culture in Sweden, and is dedicated to Lizzie Oved Scheja. The lyrics are from Oscar Levertin’s final poem cycle, King Solomon and Morolf (1905). “It became the starting point for my song cycle, a ‘five-act’” – a drama that describes the lifecycle of a person: love, sadness, sorrow, and a final farewell to life. The soprano soloist is Hannah Holgersson, who also sang at the world premiere at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in 2017.

As the title suggests, Air-Spiral-Light is about air, movement and light, but the music also leverages the incredibly expressive potential of the guitar. In the introduction, we hear the peals of wine glasses which, together with the guitar, create a nearly stratospheric feel. The soloist is Jacob Kellerman, one of our most prominent young guitarists, with a special interest in contemporary music.

For his “lightning-quick virtuosity, stage presence and tonal depth,” the young clarinettist Magnus Holmander received the Wind Music Prize from the Royal Swedish Academy of Music. He was also selected for Rising Stars 2020. Here, we will hear him in Benjamin Staern’s playful Scherzo assurdo.

The concert can been seen at Konserthuset Play

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Latvian Andris Poga is chief conductor of the Latvian National Symphony Orchestra since 2013, and designated chief conductor of the Stavanger Symphony Orchestra starting with the season 2021/22. He had his international breakthrough in 2010 when he won first prize in Evgeny Svetlanov International Conducting Competition. This concert marks his debut with the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra. 

Poga’s fellow countryman Péteris Vasks (born in 1946) is probably Latvia’s most known and celebrated composer internationally today. Musica serena for strings was written for the Finnish conductor friend Juha Kangas, and the piece war premiered in connection with Kangas’ 70th birthday. Musica serena spans a wide dynamic range, building up from softly shimmering violin harmonics to fortissimo and then gradually regaining its calm.

Polar Music Prize-winning Russian composer Sofia Gubaidulina (born in 1931), who was featured in our Composer festival in 2000, describes Fairy Tale Poem as about a piece of chalk in a classroom with a blackboard. Its dreams of getting to create pictures of beautiful castles, magnificent gardens and oceans wither away. But soon, something invigorating happens to the chalk.

With a total of fifteen symphonies, Dmitry Shostakovich is one of the twentieth century’s greatest symphonic composers. Already with the first symphony, he shows his phenomenal capacity to handle the vast orchestral palette. To be sure, traces of his teacher Rimsy-Korsakov are heard here, but above all, this is personal music with humorous turns, surprising melodies and timbral finesse. It is undoubtedly one of the most impressive symphonic debuts in music history, written by a 19 year-old Shostakovich.

The concert can been seen at Konserthuset Play

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Modest Mussorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition is one of the best known classical works. This music illustrates ten paintings by the artist Viktor Hartmann, who died suddenly at the age of 39. To pay tribute to him, his friends, including Mussorgsky, arranged an exhibition in 1874 in St. Petersburg with over 400 of his works.

Gripped by the memories the exhibition called to mind, Mussorgsky quickly composed his piano suite Pictures at an Exhibition that same year. The so-called promenade theme, which serves as a transition between the different “pictures”, has become very well known.

Here, we will experience the piece in a special arrangement by the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra’s solo trumpet player Joakim Agnas, who is also a jazz musician. He was a member of Stockholm Chamber Brass for many years and is also a studio musician, arranger and composer. He has composed a number of popular fanfares.