Programme

Wilhelm Stenhammar is without hesitation one of Sweden’s most significant composers and was one of the foremost Swedish pianists of his time. We are celebrating the 150-year anniversary of Stenhammar’s birth with a large festival. Stenhammar was born in 1871 in Stockholm. His family lived on Kammakargatan, just a few hundred metres from the location at which Konserthuset Stockholm would later be built.

Pianist Martin Sturfält is one of Sweden’s leading experts in Stenhammar’s music. His recordings of both piano concertos have received widespread international acclaim. At this concert, we will hear him with the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra in Stenhammar’s original Piano Concerto No. 2, in which soloist and orchestra face off in emotionally charged battles, both with and against one another.

Sometimes composers themselves feel their music does not measure up and one well-known example is Stenhammar’s first symphony. Audiences and critics alike had a positive reaction to its 1903 world premiere. But Stenhammar felt it was impersonal and pompous, and he withdrew it. This decision was connected to Stenhammar’s overwhelming experience of Sibelius’ Symphony No. 2 just a month before the world premiere of his own symphony in Stockholm. Stenhammar wrote to Sibelius: “I have also written a symphony now. At least, it is called a symphony. And according to an agreement, which you have perhaps forgotten, it should be dedicated to you. But this will not come to pass. It is fairly good, but it is superficial. If only I could have accessed something deeper inside.”

Here, we have a chance to form our own perceptions of Stenhammar’s symphony. The Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra will be led by Patrik Ringborg, an internationally active Swedish conductor who has worked a great deal in Germany. 

Via Konserthuset Play you can hear the first symphony, conducted by Andrew Manze.

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Livestream
The concert on September 23 can be seen at Konserthuset Play. You can also see the concert afterwards from Sunday 3 October at 19.00.

***

Please note
The concert will take place with an audience of maximum 300 people in the hall. Our ticket system ensures that you and your company (a maximum of eight people) have a distance of at least one meter to other members of the audience.

Information on how Konserthuset ensures a safe visit

Wilhelm Stenhammar is without hesitation one of Sweden’s most significant composers and was one of the foremost Swedish pianists of his time. We are celebrating the 150-year anniversary of Stenhammar’s birth with a large festival. Stenhammar was born in 1871 in Stockholm. His family lived on Kammakargatan, just a few hundred metres from the location at which Konserthuset Stockholm would later be built.

Pianist Martin Sturfält is one of Sweden’s leading experts in Stenhammar’s music. His recordings of both piano concertos have received widespread international acclaim. At this concert, we will hear him with the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra in Stenhammar’s original Piano Concerto No. 2, in which soloist and orchestra face off in emotionally charged battles, both with and against one another.

Sometimes composers themselves feel their music does not measure up and one well-known example is Stenhammar’s first symphony. Audiences and critics alike had a positive reaction to its 1903 world premiere. But Stenhammar felt it was impersonal and pompous, and he withdrew it. This decision was connected to Stenhammar’s overwhelming experience of Sibelius’ Symphony No. 2 just a month before the world premiere of his own symphony in Stockholm. Stenhammar wrote to Sibelius: “I have also written a symphony now. At least, it is called a symphony. And according to an agreement, which you have perhaps forgotten, it should be dedicated to you. But this will not come to pass. It is fairly good, but it is superficial. If only I could have accessed something deeper inside.”

Here, we have a chance to form our own perceptions of Stenhammar’s symphony. The Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra will be led by Patrik Ringborg, an internationally active Swedish conductor who has worked a great deal in Germany. 

Via Konserthuset Play you can hear the first symphony, conducted by Andrew Manze.

***

Livestream
The concert on September 23 can be seen at Konserthuset Play. You can also see the concert afterwards from Sunday 3 October at 19.00.

***

Please note
The concert will take place with an audience of maximum 300 people in the hall. Our ticket system ensures that you and your company (a maximum of eight people) have a distance of at least one meter to other members of the audience.

Information on how Konserthuset ensures a safe visit

Wilhelm Stenhammar is without hesitation one of Sweden’s most significant composers and was one of the foremost Swedish pianists of his time. We are celebrating the 150-year anniversary of Stenhammar’s birth with a large festival. Stenhammar was born in 1871 in Stockholm. His family lived on Kammakargatan, just a few hundred metres from the location at which Konserthuset Stockholm would later be built.

Chamber music is a recurring theme throughout Stenhammar’s body of work. He was also one of the era’s most prominent pianists and composed for both piano trio and piano quartet. Pianist Anna Christensson and the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra’s concertmaster and section leaders perform Stenhammar’s warmly winsome Allegro ma non tanto for piano trio as well as the extroverted and masterful Allegro Brilliante for piano quartet.

Stenhammar was inspired for a period of time by his collaboration with Per Lindberg, head of Lorensberg Theatre in Gothenburg. The collaboration resulted in scores for a number of Lindberg’s somewhat experimental productions. Several movements were compiled into orchestral suites, including the music to Chitra, by the Indian-Bengali poet, author, philosopher, composer and more, Rabindranath Tagore.

***

Please note
The concert will take place with an audience of maximum 120 people in the hall. Our ticket system ensures that you and your company (a maximum of eight people) have a distance of at least one meter to other members of the audience.

Information on how Konserthuset ensures a safe visit

Konserthuset Stockholm 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. Konserthuset Stockholm 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 guided tour is held in Swedish.
• Maximum 10 persons/tour.

***

Subtitles
Subtitles in English and Swedish is activated by using the CC control in the video player.

***

Konserthuset Stockholm follows the Public Health Agency of Sweden`s recommendations to give you a safe visit.

Konserthuset Stockholm 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. Konserthuset Stockholm 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 guided tour is held in Swedish.
• Maximum 10 persons/tour.

***

Subtitles
Subtitles in English and Swedish is activated by using the CC control in the video player.

***

Konserthuset Stockholm follows the Public Health Agency of Sweden`s recommendations to give you a safe visit.

Wilhelm Stenhammar is without hesitation one of Sweden’s most significant composers and was one of the foremost Swedish pianists of his time. We are celebrating the 150-year anniversary of Stenhammar’s birth with a large festival. Stenhammar was born in 1871 in Stockholm. His family lived on Kammakargatan, just a few hundred metres from the location at which Konserthuset Stockholm would later be built.

When Stenhammar returned to Sweden after studying piano for a few years in Berlin in the early 1890s, he brought his first piano concerto home with him. The piece would be his major breakthrough and Stenhammar performed the solo himself at the world premiere. The papers said he was a genius; one review exclaimed that “no newly performing Swedish composer has made such a definitive impression of brilliance as Wilhelm Stenhammar”.

After hearing Sibelius’ second symphony, Stenhammar fell into an artistic crisis. He revoked his first symphony and searched for a new method of composition. He began to study counterpoint, stepping away from Romantic and First Viennese School writing methods. Now he could create something new and his second symphony takes a new approach to the inclusion of Nordic elements. A Swedish folk melody sparkles in both the first movement and the glimmering scherzo. The second movement is carried by drawn-out notes balanced against a ceremonial march, and the finale is a complex fabric of parallel melodic notes. With this symphony, Stenhammar achieved his ambition to compose “level-headed, authentic music without a crash”.

The Royal Swedish Orchestra will be conducted by Tobias Ringborg, who is not only an internationally acclaimed conductor, but also a violinist and an active advocate for Swedish music.

***

Please note
The concert will take place with an audience of maximum 300 people in the hall. Our ticket system ensures that you and your company (a maximum of eight people) have a distance of at least one meter to other members of the audience.

Information on how Konserthuset ensures a safe visit

Wilhelm Stenhammar is without hesitation one of Sweden’s most significant composers and was one of the foremost Swedish pianists of his time. We are celebrating the 150-year anniversary of Stenhammar’s birth with a large festival. Stenhammar was born in 1871 in Stockholm. His family lived on Kammakargatan, just a few hundred metres from the location at which Konserthuset Stockholm would later be built.

Chamber music is a recurring theme throughout Stenhammar’s body of work and the six string quartets hold a central position. The first quartet contains clear inspiration from Brahms’ String Quartets, Op. 51, while the second is ecstatically late-Romantic. The third and fourth quartets contain hints of Beethoven’s pioneering late quartets, while the fifth has a foundation of irony characterised by influences from Haydn and Mozart’s quartets. In the sixth and last string quartet, the harmonics are bolder and less conventional.

One of Sweden’s most sought-after chamber music ensembles, the Dahlkvist Quartet formed in 2007 and has become established at the international level. The quartet was chosen for the Rising Stars 2012–2013 season by Konserthuset Stockholm and the European Concert Hall Organisation, giving the ensemble the opportunity to perform at several major concert halls in Europe, including Vienna Konzerthaus, Concertgebouw Amsterdam, Paris Cité de la Musique and Budapest Palace of Arts. The quartet’s album Andrea Tarrodi String Quartets won a Grammis Award in 2018 in the category Classical of the Year.

Since its foundation in 2002, the Stenhammar Quartet has become one of Scandinavia’s leading string quartets. Wilhelm Stenhammar’s work, along with other Swedish music, comprises a key part of the quartet’s repertoire, but they also focus on the First Viennese School and contemporary music. The quartet regularly commissions pieces from Swedish composers, including works by Sven-David Sandström and Per Mårtensson. They have also premiered pieces by composers from the US, UK, Finland and Norway.

Oslo String Quartet is one of Norway’s most prominent chamber music ensembles and regularly performs at all of the country’s major classical music festivals. The quartet has toured Germany and elsewhere in Europe, and performs regularly at London’s Wigmore Hall. The ensemble has also been invited to major international chamber music events, including the Schleswig-Holstein Music Festival. A milestone in the quartet’s career was their US debut in 2005 at Carnegie Hall in New York.

***

Please note
The concert will take place with an audience of maximum 120 people in the hall. Our ticket system ensures that you and your company (a maximum of eight people) have a distance of at least one meter to other members of the audience.

Information on how Konserthuset ensures a safe visit

Wilhelm Stenhammar is without hesitation one of Sweden’s most significant composers and was one of the foremost Swedish pianists of his time. We are celebrating the 150-year anniversary of Stenhammar’s birth with a large festival. Stenhammar was born in 1871 in Stockholm. His family lived on Kammakargatan, just a few hundred metres from the location at which Konserthuset Stockholm would later be built.

Next to his chamber music, Stenhammar’s songs are perhaps his most important compositions. They also inspired great admiration among his contemporary colleagues in singing and composition. Already as a teenager, he composed songs to texts by Heinrich Heine, Jens Peter Jacobsen, Oscar Levertin and Johan Ludvig Runeberg. Many of his songs also demonstrate his unparalleled ability to dress up the poetry of his day with perfectly atmospheric music.

Soprano Miah Persson performs in the world’s most prestigious opera houses and is also highly active in concert settings. Her specialities include Mozart’s operas, as well as the role of Sophie in Richard Strauss’ Rosenkavalier and Anne Trulove in Stravinsky’s The Rake’s Progress. Her discography is extensive and she has worked with conductors such as René Jacobs, Marc Minkowski and Iván Fischer. Recent seasons have included roles at Teatro dell’Opera di Roma, the Berlin State Opera, Theater an der Wien and the Verbier Festival.

Karl-Magnus Fredriksson performs with many of the foremost orchestras and regularly travels to various European countries to perform opera and lieder, orchestral songs and sacred works. Since 1999, he has been associated with the Royal Swedish Opera, where he has performed numerous famous roles in operas by Mozart, Rossini, Verdi and Puccini, as well as contemporary Swedish operas such as Sven-David Sandström’s Batseba, Daniel Börtz’s Medea, and Hans Gefors’ Christina. He is also a popular educator and was appointed court singer in 2004.

The versatile pianist Magnus Svensson specialises in the art of lied, and he has served as artistic director of Lied Evenings at Konserthuset for several seasons. In addition to the Nordic region and elsewhere in Europe, he has also performed in Russia and the US. Magnus Svensson obtained his soloist diploma from the Royal College of Music in Stockholm, graduated with honours as top student, and then immersed himself in the study of lied interpretation in London. Since 2012, he has also worked at the Royal Swedish Academy of Music with re-publishing older Swedish music.

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Livestream
The concert can be seen at Konserthuset Play. You can also see the concert afterwards on Play.

Wilhelm Stenhammar is without hesitation one of Sweden’s most significant composers and was one of the foremost Swedish pianists of his time. We are celebrating the 150-year anniversary of Stenhammar’s birth with a large festival. Stenhammar was born in 1871 in Stockholm. His family lived on Kammakargatan, just a few hundred metres from the location at which Konserthuset Stockholm would later be built.

In the symphonic overture Excelsior!, we encounter a romantic and passionate Stenhammar at age 25. The melodies are filled with ecstatic, upward-reaching energy – Excelsior means higher, ambitiousness. Conducted by the legendary Arthur Nikisch, the Berlin Philharmonic performed the world premiere of Excelsior! in 1896, the same year Stenhammar composed it.

Stenhammar may have been a pianist, but he had a distinct feel for the expression of a violin. In Two Sentimental Romances for violin and orchestra, we get a taste of his unique ability to create long, melodic string parts that draw the listener into a peaceful, pastoral landscape. This music has the tangible feel of a summer night, where melancholy and happiness go hand in hand. The soloist is the acclaimed young Swedish star violinist Johan Dalene.   

Stenhammar had the idea for the beloved and frequently performed Serenade while visiting Florence in 1907. He wrote in a letter, “I want to write beautifully and tenderly about the south, in a way that only a resident of the north can do.” And indeed he succeeded, for the Serenade is one of his true masterpieces: sensual southern European music presented in Nordic light – playful, lyrical and beautiful.

As a bonus, the entire concert will conclude with Stenhammar’s Violin Sonata. 

The Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra will be led by Andrew Manze, the internationally acclaimed conductor and violinist who was chief conductor of the Helsingborg Symphony Orchestra from 2006–2014.

***

Livestream
The concert on September 30 can be seen at Konserthuset Play. You can also see the concert afterwards on Play.

Konserthuset Stockholm 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. Konserthuset Stockholm 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 guided tour is held in Swedish.
• Maximum 10 persons/tour.

***

Subtitles
Subtitles in English and Swedish is activated by using the CC control in the video player.

***

Konserthuset Stockholm follows the Public Health Agency of Sweden`s recommendations to give you a safe visit.