Love and longing

The Eric Ericson Chamber Choir performs music by the major German Romantics Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy and Richard Wagner. Love and longing may be experienced in the music, however this programme also reflects on contrasts and tensions: Mendelssohn-Bartholdy was Jewish, Wagner an outspoken antisemite. Here they are juxtaposed in order to demonstrate differences and similarities. At the same time their music is observed by new pieces, where Staffan Storm reflects on Wagner and Britta Byström on Mendelssohn-Bartholdy.

Staffan Storm is a composer who in part has stylistic roots in German late Romanticism. His opera Im Treibhaus – with a libretto by Ebba Witt-Brattström – depicted crucial events in Wagner’s stormy romantic relationship with Mathilde Wesendonck. With an international perspective, Britta Byström’s music may have more French and Impressionistic elements. She is one of Sweden’s most played composers and was featured at Konserthuset’s Composer Weekend in 2010.

The Eric Ericson Chamber Choir was founded in 1945 by Eric Ericson, and since then it has taken a central role in the Swedish and international music scenes. For generations of Swedish composers, the chamber choir was the ideal ensemble, with its typical Nordic sound and virtuosity. The Eric Ericson Chamber Choir is part of the absolute elite level of professional ensembles. The Eric Ericson Chamber Choir and Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra have enjoyed a close partnership since 2003.