Genre: Orchestral performance

International Composer Festival – Drama with three notes

Guest performance by the Swedish Chamber Orchestra with award-winning Swedish violinist Ava Bahari.

This year's International Composer Festival at Konserthuset Stockholm is dedicated to the Scottish composer James MacMillan. His music combines raw emotional power with spiritual focus, rooted in his Catholic faith.

The concert begins with an overture: Eleven. Music with a sports theme, inspired by the local football teams in East Ayrshire, Scotland, where MacMillan grew up. Eleven refers to the number of players in a team, and much of the music is built around the number eleven. The piece starts with the sound of a referee's whistle, and familiar melodies from football chants also emerge.

At the heart of the expressive second violin concerto is a simple theme with just three notes played pizzicato at the beginning. As often in MacMillan's music, there are dance-like elements, but also melancholic passages that can suddenly burst open and let in light, like clearings in a dark forest. The soloist is the acclaimed Swedish violinist Ava Bahari.

In the short piece One for chamber orchestra, the atmosphere is idyllic with simple folk music-inspired melodies. Tryst has strong elements of Scottish folk music, but also of other music that has been important to him. "Tryst" can refer to a secret meeting place for lovers, but farmers in Scotland often use the word to describe a place where animals gather, a "trysting place". Here, MacMillan uses Tryst to describe a meeting place for music that is dear to him.

The Swedish Chamber Orchestra performs under the direction of Brett Dean, who himself was the subject of the International Composer Festival at Konserthuset in 2011, but is also internationally active as a conductor.

Guest performance by the Swedish Chamber Orchestra with award-winning Swedish violinist Ava Bahari.

Friday 15 November 2024 19.00

Ends approximately 21.00

Price:

145-470 SEK

This year's International Composer Festival at Konserthuset Stockholm is dedicated to the Scottish composer James MacMillan. His music combines raw emotional power with spiritual focus, rooted in his Catholic faith.

The concert begins with an overture: Eleven. Music with a sports theme, inspired by the local football teams in East Ayrshire, Scotland, where MacMillan grew up. Eleven refers to the number of players in a team, and much of the music is built around the number eleven. The piece starts with the sound of a referee's whistle, and familiar melodies from football chants also emerge.

At the heart of the expressive second violin concerto is a simple theme with just three notes played pizzicato at the beginning. As often in MacMillan's music, there are dance-like elements, but also melancholic passages that can suddenly burst open and let in light, like clearings in a dark forest. The soloist is the acclaimed Swedish violinist Ava Bahari.

In the short piece One for chamber orchestra, the atmosphere is idyllic with simple folk music-inspired melodies. Tryst has strong elements of Scottish folk music, but also of other music that has been important to him. "Tryst" can refer to a secret meeting place for lovers, but farmers in Scotland often use the word to describe a place where animals gather, a "trysting place". Here, MacMillan uses Tryst to describe a meeting place for music that is dear to him.

The Swedish Chamber Orchestra performs under the direction of Brett Dean, who himself was the subject of the International Composer Festival at Konserthuset in 2011, but is also internationally active as a conductor.

  • The music

    Approximate times
  • James MacMillan Eleven
    5 min
  • James MacMillan Violin Concerto No. 2
    25 min
  • Intermission
    25 min
  • James MacMillan One
    3 min
  • James MacMillan Tryst
    30 min
  • Participants

  • Swedish Chamber Orchestra
  • Brett Dean conductor
  • Ava Bahari violin

Friday 15 November 2024 19.00

Ends approximately 21.00

Price:

145-470 SEK


A cello rises to the sky in James MacMillan’s striking cello concerto. Marie Macleod is the solist and this is followed by Ryan Bancroft leading the orchestra in Elgar’s masterpiece Enigma Variations.

Useful information for your visit.

Choose from several classical Swedish dishes, soups, and wraps. Pre-order your meal, up to 48 hours before the start of the concert.