Songs of Love

The Eric Ericson Chamber Choir was founded in 1945 by the then 27-year-old Eric Ericson, and has since held a central position in Swedish and international musical life. Today, the choir ranks among the very finest professional ensembles worldwide. Since 2003, the Eric Ericson Chamber Choir has enjoyed a close collaboration with the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra at Konserthuset Stockholm.

On this occasion, the choir is conducted by Latvian Anastasija Kildiša, one of the 2024 semi-finalists in the Eric Ericson Award – the world’s leading competition for young choral conductors. The programme includes settings by Alma Mahler of texts by Rilke, and music by Daniel-Lesur (1908–2002), a French composer whose Le cantique des cantiques stands as a highlight of 20th-century French choral music. It is a moving setting of texts from the Song of Songs – the Bible’s lyrically sensual love poetry – where Daniel-Lesur weaves together polyphonic Renaissance style with French impressionism and more modern tonal language.

A similar meeting of Renaissance and modernism can be found in the music of Swedish composer Lars Johan Werle (1926–2001). In Canzone 126 di Francesco Petrarca, he explores the expressive Italian verse and vivid imagery of the Renaissance poet Petrarch in bold, contemporary choral writing.

The Swedish thread continues with Staffan Storm’s choral arrangement of Wilhelm Stenhammar’s Stjärnöga, as well as Flickan knyter i Johannenatten for voice and piano. Also featured is Den enda stunden for double choir a cappella, a joint composition by Thomas Jennefelt and Sven-David Sandström.

This season’s featured composer at Konserthuset Stockholm is also Swedish: Tebogo Monnakgotla. In several works, she has returned to the life and poetry of Jean-Joseph Rabearivelo, the French-speaking poet from Madagascar. Her Autre naissance du jour (2016) tells of a day reborn through the voices and sounds of nature.