Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra

In the final of the 24 Caprices for Solo Violin, the demonic violinist Nicolò Paganini created a theme that has always fascinated audiences and inspired other composers. The theme is simple but offers infinite possibilities. Possibilities which Sergei Rachmaninoff took advantage of when he composed his masterful and at times inconceivably beautiful variations for piano and orchestra. Performing the solo with the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra will be the Ukrainian-born virtuoso who now lives in Australia, Alexander Gavrylyuk.

Music by Anna Clyne will begin the concert. “Night Ferry is about travel, from anxious darkness to worlds of enchantment,” says the London-born Clyne, who is active in the US. The concert will be crowned by the great Polish composer Witold Lutosławski’s rhythmically challenging and melodically dramatic Concerto for Orchestra, which was also his breakthrough piece. He derived the musical base material for the concerto from the folk music of the Masiova region near Warsaw.

British conductor Edward Gardner guest-conducts orchestras all over the world and is chief conductor of the Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra. He has also recorded all of the orchestral works of Witold Lutosławski.

In the final of the 24 Caprices for Solo Violin, the demonic violinist Nicolò Paganini created a theme that has always fascinated audiences and inspired other composers. The theme is simple but offers infinite possibilities. Possibilities which Sergei Rachmaninoff took advantage of when he composed his masterful and at times inconceivably beautiful variations for piano and orchestra. Performing the solo with the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra will be the Ukrainian-born virtuoso who now lives in Australia, Alexander Gavrylyuk.

Music by Anna Clyne will begin the concert. “Night Ferry is about travel, from anxious darkness to worlds of enchantment,” says the London-born Clyne, who is active in the US. The concert will be crowned by the great Polish composer Witold Lutosławski’s rhythmically challenging and melodically dramatic Concerto for Orchestra, which was also his breakthrough piece. He derived the musical base material for the concerto from the folk music of the Masiova region near Warsaw.

British conductor Edward Gardner guest-conducts orchestras all over the world and is chief conductor of the Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra. He has also recorded all of the orchestral works of Witold Lutosławski.

Ethel Smyth (1858–1944) was exceptionally talented and went to Leipzig, which was one of the most important music cities in the nineteenth century. She met Dvořák, Tchaikovsky and Grieg there, but she found the teaching at the conservatory, which was founded by Mendelssohn-Bartholdy, to be utterly underwhelming. Instead she began studying privately under Heinrich von Herzogenberg and through him she met Clara Schumann and Johannes Brahms, who gave her significant support.

Smyth came to be a highly acclaimed personality, both as a composer and as one of the leading individuals of the suffrage movement which fought for women’s right to vote in England. In recent years, some of her music has been performed at Konserthuset, but this is the first time the programme will feature Mass in D. The magnificent mass is constructed almost like an opera and is simultaneously melodically tasteful and intricate, dramatic and expressively imagistic. For her efforts in England, Ethel Smyth was named Dame of the British Empire.

We will also hear Bohuslav Martinů’s Violin Concerto No. 2, which unites Romanticism and Impressionism to phenomenal effect when the exquisite melodies are seasoned with adventurous and masterful violin passages. The German star violinist Frank Peter Zimmermann will perform the solo.

Ethel Smyth (1858–1944) was exceptionally talented and went to Leipzig, which was one of the most important music cities in the nineteenth century. She met Dvořák, Tchaikovsky and Grieg there, but she found the teaching at the conservatory, which was founded by Mendelssohn-Bartholdy, to be utterly underwhelming. Instead she began studying privately under Heinrich von Herzogenberg and through him she met Clara Schumann and Johannes Brahms, who gave her significant support.

Smyth came to be a highly acclaimed personality, both as a composer and as one of the leading individuals of the suffrage movement which fought for women’s right to vote in England. In recent years, some of her music has been performed at Konserthuset, but this is the first time the programme will feature Mass in D. The magnificent mass is constructed almost like an opera and is simultaneously melodically tasteful and intricate, dramatic and expressively imagistic. For her efforts in England, Ethel Smyth was named Dame of the British Empire.

We will also hear Bohuslav Martinů’s Violin Concerto No. 2, which unites Romanticism and Impressionism to phenomenal effect when the exquisite melodies are seasoned with adventurous and masterful violin passages. The German star violinist Frank Peter Zimmermann will perform the solo.