Programme

Operabyrån celebrates the 400-year anniversary of the birth of Barbara Strozzi with a resounding anniversary concert! This deluxe party will feature solo cantatas, duets, instrumental music and dances performed by some of the country’s most in-demand Baroque artists.

Operabyrån’s performances unite Baroque music and occasionally new compositions with subjects that are both relevant and urgent today, and in which women from history are lifted from the shadows. In 2018, Operabyrån received the Guldkvast award from KVAST – the Association of Swedish Women Composers – because “with several excellent stage and opera performances of music by and about female composers from the Baroque period, they have contributed to adjusting music history.”

Barbara Strozzi was one of Italy’s most significant composers of the seventeenth century, a contemporary of Monteverdi. She was known as “La virtuosissima cantatrice” – the masterful singer – and she grew up as an illegitimate daughter among the Venetian cultural elite, where she hobnobbed with philosophers, authors and poets, and discussed the meaning of life, love and music. A contradictory and exciting destiny is presented in this anniversary concert framed by a modern dancer who, in symbiosis with musicians and singers, creates a poetic whole.

The anniversary concert presents Strozzi’s incredibly beautiful and dramatic music beside other contemporary composers, such as Antonio Bertali, Dario Castello and Giovanni Girolamo Kapsberger.

Elegance and refinement, along with restlessness and worry, characterise Mozart’s Symphony No. 40, composed in the summer of 1788. He had financial worries; his wife Constanze was ill; and the opera Don Giovanni had not been especially successful at the Vienna Opera. He withdrew and over the course of nine weeks, he composed his three greatest and most accomplished symphonies. The fortieth is the second of the three, and one of only two of all his symphonic works in a minor key.

In the piece Accused (2014), with extravagant colours and contrast, Finnish composer Magnus Lindberg has created a fascinating world of sound that tells the story of three historic interrogations. The lyrics are excerpts from the interrogations of Théroigne de Méricourt during the French Revolution; the interrogation by East Germany’s security police, the Stasi, of residents during the Cold War; and finally, the trial of Bradley Manning (now Chelsea Manning).

Together with Esa-Pekka Salonen and Kaija Saariaho, Magnus Lindberg is among the trendsetting group of Finnish musicians and composers who became known in the 1970s and 80s. The Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra’s chief conductor Sakari Oramo and soprano Anu Komsi are also among these incredibly prominent Finnish names in music.

Through Konserthuset’s popular organ matinée subscription, audiences get to hear leading organists perform on the venue’s own organ, which with its 6,100 pipes is one of the largest in Europe.

The young organist Sebastian Johansson was born and raised in Jönköping and began playing organ at the age of 11. Two years later, he began substituting as a church musician and then became a student at the organist programme in Malmö. In autumn 2019 he will begin the master programme in organ at the Royal College of Music in Stockholm. In addition to the classical repertoire, he has significant interest in improvisation and at this concert he will be given a theme on which to improvise. He also gladly plays jazz and pop and will perform Avicii’s Wake Me Up, a song that was released in 2013 and quickly became a global hit.

J.S. Bach’s Prelude and Fugue were nicknamed St. Anne because a theme in the fugue resembles the melody of a psalm by that name by British composer William Croft. The piece is part of the third section of Bach’s Clavier-Übung, and stands out in his organ repertoire as one of his loveliest compositions.

French organist Jeanne Demessieux was a student of Marcel Dupré and had a fantastic international career, having received special acclaim for her improvisation. She composed Te Deum in 1965.

Elegance and refinement, along with restlessness and worry, characterise Mozart’s Symphony No. 40, composed in the summer of 1788. He had financial worries; his wife Constanze was ill; and the opera Don Giovanni had not been especially successful at the Vienna Opera. He withdrew and over the course of nine weeks, he composed his three greatest and most accomplished symphonies. The fortieth is the second of the three, and one of only two of all his symphonic works in a minor key.

In the piece Accused (2014), with extravagant colours and contrast, Finnish composer Magnus Lindberg has created a fascinating world of sound that tells the story of three historic interrogations. The lyrics are excerpts from the interrogations of Théroigne de Méricourt during the French Revolution; the interrogation by East Germany’s security police, the Stasi, of residents during the Cold War; and finally, the trial of Bradley Manning (now Chelsea Manning).

Together with Esa-Pekka Salonen and Kaija Saariaho, Magnus Lindberg is among the trendsetting group of Finnish musicians and composers who became known in the 1970s and 80s. The Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra’s chief conductor Sakari Oramo and soprano Anu Komsi are also among these incredibly prominent Finnish names in music.

New Friday is a subscription for forward-looking listeners who want to open their ears to the innovative music of today. Stockholm Brass Quintet was founded in 2010 by five brass musicians who are active in different orchestras throughout Scandinavia. The ensemble has made a niche for itself through its work to expand the rather limited repertoire for brass quintet with exciting and relevant new compositions. Their artistic concept is to contribute to the cultural legacy that will be inherited by future generations and to create classics for tomorrow.

In this evening’s programme we will hear the piece The Madness Industry by Cheryl Frances-Hoad, a British composer who won the BBC Young Composer Competition in 1996. Boreas is a solo piece for tuba from 1999 in which Askell Másson has used Icelandic folk music to present the north wind of mythology, Boreas. Austrian Olga Neuwirth’s trumpet solo O Laki is from 2006 and Brass Link IV by Klas Torstensson is from a cycle that premiered in 2003 and can be described as an overture.

Drache-Frau by Andrea Tarrodi is about what it’s like to be an aging diva, inspired by Karin Johannisson’s book The Wounded Diva. This concert also includes a world premiere, Svensk Ek for brass quintet by Hans Ek.

Come early, stay late – the bar will be open with drinks and snacks before and after the concert.

When the Royal Swedish Cavalry Band, led by conductor David Björkman, takes the main stage at Konserthuset Stockholm each year, audiences can expect something spectacular! That includes this year, when they will be featuring a real-life knight: Swedish concert pianist and composer Niklas Sivelöv, dubbed Knight of the Order of Dannebrog.

Together, they will offer audiences pining symphonic tones, dramatic and romantic gems, along with old-fashioned music from the canon with Tchaikovsky’s 1812 Overture.

Welcome to this unique evening with the Cavalry Band!

This concert is a joint arrangement between the Föreningen för den Beridna Högvakten (“Association for the Royal Mounted Guards”) and the Royal Swedish Cavalry Band.

When discussing Swedish composers Ludvig Norman and Wilhelm Stenhammar, we often bring up their studies of German music. Both were pianists, and in addition to the German repertoire, they were pleased to perform music by Frédéric Chopin. In their works for piano, we can hear Chopin’s piano technique, which provided them with opportunities for expression in their own music.

Here, we will get to hear Lifvets Åldrar (“Ages of Life”), a suite which Norman played himself on his final concert tour, and Nights of Late Summer, Stenhammar’s last piece for piano.

Chopin moved from his beloved homeland of Poland to live in Paris, where he focused on composing music for his instrument: piano. Polonaise-Fantaisie is one of his last major works. Variations on Là ci darem la mano made the young Chopin known throughout the European music scene, thanks largely to Robert Schumann’s review: “Hats off, gentlemen – a genius!”

As a bonus, Kiyo and guest cellist Klas Gagge will play rare cello music by Stenhammar and Norman. We will hear fragments from Stenhammar’s cello sonata, edited by Kiyo Wada based on Stenhammar’s notes for a cello sonata that was never completed. We will also hear Norman’s Lied ohne Worte, an unpublished piece he composed at the age of 15.

This concert is a collaboration with Friends of Stenhammar.

Arcadi Volodos has long been among the leading piano soloists in the world and appears with orchestras such as the Berlin Philharmonic, the Royal Concertgebouw in Amsterdam and the New York Philharmonic. He also gives recitals on the most prestigious concert stages and now, for the first time ever, we have the opportunity to see him perform at Konserthuset Stockholm.

The programme includes several tranquil, picturesque and technically demanding pieces by Franz Liszt, including the magnificent second ballad inspired by Gottfried Bürger’s gothic and dark ballad Leonore, the extremely virtuoso Legend No 1 ”St François d’Assise: La prédication aux oiseaux” and the gripping Petrarca Sonata 123.

In addition, we will hear music by Robert Schumann. Humoreske was composed with love for his wife Clara. He wrote to her: ”I’ve been sitting at the piano all week, composing and writing, laughing and crying all at once. All this you will find beautifully depicted in my opus 20, the Grand Humoreske ...”.

The Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra Academy is an advanced special academic programme for young musicians. The programme is presented on site at Konserthuset Stockholm and carried out in collaboration with the Piteå School of Music at Luleå University of Technology. Section leaders from the orchestra are the teachers and supervisors during this one-year programme. The programme incorporates individual teaching on each instrument, and orchestral and chamber music performance.

In just a few years, the Orchestra Academy has become one of the foremost seedbeds for young musicians; after finishing their year of study, the majority of students win entrance performances to both Swedish and international orchestras.

In a number of public chamber music concerts – like this one – the audience has an opportunity to better get to know and hear these young musicians.

For the lied concert subscription, now in its seventh season, pianist Magnus Svensson has invited an exclusive group of musicians from the world’s opera and concert stages, and offers us the opportunity to experience their vocal art through intimate encounters in Grünewald Hall. At this concert, we will hear German baritone Benjamin Appl (the earlier announced soprano Dorothea Röschmann has been obliged to cancel).

Described as the current front-runner in the new generation of Lieder singers by Gramophone Magazine, Benjamin Appl is celebrated by audiences and critics in recital, concerts and opera. He was an ECHO Rising Star for the 2015-16 season, and prior to this a member of the BBC New Generation Artist scheme. He studied in Munich and London, and was mentored by the great Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau. Benjamin Appl now teaches German Lieder himself at the Guildhall School of Music & Drama in London. He has recorded several albums, the latest being a cd with music by J S Bach, performed with Concerto Köln.

Versatile pianist Magnus Svensson specialises in the art of the lied, and for the last several seasons he has served as artistic director of the lied subscription. In addition to concert performances in the Nordic region and elsewhere in Europe, he has also played in Russia and the US. Magnus Svensson graduated with honours and at the top of his class from the Royal College of Music in Stockholm with a degree in soloist performance, and immersed himself in lied interpretation in London. Since 2012 he has also worked at the Royal Swedish Academy of Music with the republication of older Swedish music.