Beethoven Festival V – Beethoven and Boulanger

Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony – perhaps the most frequently performed work in the classical repertoire. A symphony of symphonies, music that is impossible to remain indifferent to. In his book on Beethoven, former Konserthuset Director Åke Holmquist writes that the symphony “is stripped down and extraordinarily concentrated, with violent contrasts, easy to follow and – if one wishes – with a ‘narrative’: from darkness to light, from struggle to victory. Moreover, the Fifth seems, more than any other work, to embody the Beethoven myth: the solitary titan, battling fate, who can triumph only through struggle.”

The concert opens with music by Lili Boulanger, who in 1913 became the first woman to win the prestigious Prix de Rome for composition, at just 19 years of age. That same year, she composed the song cycle Clairières dans le ciel (“Clearings in the Sky”) to poems by Francis Jammes. The music is impressionistic, marked by a melancholic beauty.

Originally written for voice and piano, the 13 songs were later partly orchestrated by her sister, the legendary pedagogue Nadia Boulanger, following Lili’s untimely death at the age of just 24. In this concert, with Dutch-American soprano Katharine Dain, we hear the complete cycle, with the remaining five songs newly orchestrated – a rare opportunity to experience this deeply moving work in its entirety, in full orchestral colour.

In this concert, part of the Beethoven Festival, we hear the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra under the direction of Chief Conductor Ryan Bancroft.

Read more about chief conductor Ryan Bancroft

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Package

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