KVAST – Progenitors

The Kvast anniversary weekend concludes with a look back in history at female progenitors and role models in music, all born in the nineteenth century. Participants include the Maier Quartet (consisting of musicians from the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra), Nigar Dadascheva, who is a piano soloist and chamber musician, as well as the soprano Paulina Pfeiffer.

We will hear songs and instrumental music by Amanda Maier-Röntgen (1853–94), a violinist and composer who was active on the continent. She was born in Landskrona, Sweden, but eventually lived in Amsterdam and married composer Julius Röntgen. The Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra and orchestra member Claudia Bonfiglioli have previously performed a violin concerto, among other pieces, which was recorded and can be viewed on KonserthusetPlay.

This performance of the string quartet from 1877 is a world premiere – sensational! The score has been available for about 20 years, but it was incomplete (pages were missing). Honouring the style of the existing piece, it has been completed by composer B. Tommy Andersson and can now be performed in its entirety for the first time – which never happened in Amanda Maier-Röntgen’s lifetime.

Helena Munktell (1852–1919) is among the composers to receive broad recognition in recent years. In particular, the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra has performed the orchestral piece Bränningar several times, and just last year, the opera I Firenze was performed in Berwaldhallen (Munktell was the first Swedish woman to compose an opera). 

Norwegian Pauline Hall (1890–1969) was active as a composer, author and a discerning critic in Dagbladet. She also made important contributions to the Norwegian music scene, including the foundation of the organisation Ny Musikk (New Music), for which she was also chairperson. We will hear two pieces for piano and two songs. 

Elfrida Andrée (1841–1929) was the first woman in Sweden to obtain a degree as an organist and to serve as a cathedral organist.  She composed chamber music and symphonic pieces and was a female pioneer in Sweden in this arena, which is also true of her work as an orchestra conductor.

The least familiar name on this programme is perhaps Ruth Almén (1870–1945). She was a pianist, which also permeates her body of work; it includes a piano concerto. We will hear the song Till lifvet (“To Life”), in a new arrangement for string quartet by the young composer Ylva Fred. The weekend and Kvast’s ten-year anniversary celebration will be rounded out with a direct convergence of composers of the past and present, and of progenitors of today and tomorrow.

Konserthuset Play!
A unique performance of Amanda Röntgen-Maier’s shimmering, lyrical Violin Concerto in D Minor from 1875, with the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra’s Claudia Bonfiglioli in the role of soloist, and the orchestra under the baton of Chief Conductor Sakari Oramo. Listen