Herbert Blomstedt conducts

Herbert Blomstedt has conducted the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra well over 200 times since his debut in 1954. The orchestras with which the absolute greatest Swedish conductor of our time has worked include Staatskapelle Dresden, Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra, Berlin Philharmonic, Orchestre de Paris and all the great orchestras of the US – especially the San Francisco Symphony, for which Blomstedt was chief conductor for ten years.

Berlioz’s Symphonie Fantastique is a milestone in music history, a rich, flowing and deeply original work. His love for the actress Harriet Smithson, who he saw perform Ophelia in a rendition of Shakespeare’s Hamlet, was an important source of inspiration for the work. The symphony is a dramatic narrative of a love that never gets to bloom, and we follow the young artist through fiery passion, out in nature, and into the world of dreams.

Franz Berwald has been called Sweden’s greatest symphonic composer, but circumstances during his life led to him working as an orthopaedist and an industry man on the side of his musical career. Sinfonie Singulière did not premiere until long after his death, with the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra (which was called the Stockholm Concert Society at the time) in January 1905, under the baton of Tor Aulin.