Chief Conductor Ryan Bancroft

Be prepared: this is a programme that traverses emotional extremes. It begins gently and melancholic – sorrow can be beautiful – and concludes with the emotional outbursts that arise when the thunderous blows of the orchestra's thirteen hammers resonate through history, to the bone and marrow. It’s music that shakes you to the core.

In between, entirely different music by Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy. His first piano concerto is a musical fireworks display with dizzyingly fast runs across the entire range of the piano. At this concert, the rockets are ignited by the acclaimed British pianist Isata Kanneh-Mason.

Mendelssohn-Bartholdy was only seventeen when he wrote his wonderful overture to A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Yet it is considered one of his first mature masterpieces, and the young composer manages to capture the full range of emotions that Shakespeare presents in his universally human comedy.

Emotions, indeed. British composer Anna Clyne composed the opening piece Within Her Arms in 2009, in memory of her mother. The music for string ensemble resonates with a tenderness and warmth reminiscent of for instance the Renaissance composer John Dowland.

Closing The Confession of Isobel Gowdie was composed in 1990 by the Scottish composer James MacMillan, who is featured in the International Composer Festival this autumn. Chief Conductor Ryan Bancroft has testified to the transformative experience when he first heard the incredibly powerful work as a teenager.

Isobel Gowdie was burned at the stake during the Scottish witch trials in the 17th century. ”On behalf of the Scottish people, the work craves absolution and offers Isobel Gowdie the mercy and humanity that was denied her in the last days of her life”, writes MacMillan. In her memory, he composed an unforgettable and poignant ”requiem” for orchestra.

Read more about chief conductor Ryan Bancroft

Be prepared: this is a programme that traverses emotional extremes. It begins gently and melancholic – sorrow can be beautiful – and concludes with the emotional outbursts that arise when the thunderous blows of the orchestra's thirteen hammers resonate through history, to the bone and marrow. It’s music that shakes you to the core.

In between, entirely different music by Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy. His first piano concerto is a musical fireworks display with dizzyingly fast runs across the entire range of the piano. At this concert, the rockets are ignited by the acclaimed British pianist Isata Kanneh-Mason.

Mendelssohn-Bartholdy was only seventeen when he wrote his wonderful overture to A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Yet it is considered one of his first mature masterpieces, and the young composer manages to capture the full range of emotions that Shakespeare presents in his universally human comedy.

Emotions, indeed. British composer Anna Clyne composed the opening piece Within Her Arms in 2009, in memory of her mother. The music for string ensemble resonates with a tenderness and warmth reminiscent of for instance the Renaissance composer John Dowland.

Closing The Confession of Isobel Gowdie was composed in 1990 by the Scottish composer James MacMillan, who is featured in the International Composer Festival this autumn. Chief Conductor Ryan Bancroft has testified to the transformative experience when he first heard the incredibly powerful work as a teenager.

Isobel Gowdie was burned at the stake during the Scottish witch trials in the 17th century. ”On behalf of the Scottish people, the work craves absolution and offers Isobel Gowdie the mercy and humanity that was denied her in the last days of her life”, writes MacMillan. In her memory, he composed an unforgettable and poignant ”requiem” for orchestra.

Read more about chief conductor Ryan Bancroft

With these concerts, Ryan Bancroft completes his first season as chief conductor of the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra. And he does so with a key number that is close to his heart: Stravinsky’s The Firebird – not the often-played suite, but the complete ballet music from 1910. “It’s an enormous orchestra and the best version,” says Bancroft. 

This also marks a step in the recordings of Stravinsky’s ballets Petrushka, The Firebird and The Rite of Spring – Bancroft and the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra’s first recordings together. 

It is possible that Lili Boulanger heard at least one of these Stravinsky ballets, all of which premiered in her home city of Paris in the early twentieth century. First, we hear Lili Boulanger’s D’un matin de printemps – one of the last works this young genius composed before passing away much too young in 1918, at just 24 years old. Despite the circumstances, this is bright music with light and playful steps.  

Åland-born soprano Sofie Asplund is doubly present in Konserthuset this season: both in a lied concert and on this occasion, when she sings arias by Mozart. Asplund has garnered a great deal of acclaim in recent years and has been praised for several of her interpretations of roles on Sweden’s opera stages. 

With these concerts, Ryan Bancroft completes his first season as chief conductor of the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra. And he does so with a key number that is close to his heart: Stravinsky’s The Firebird – not the often-played suite, but the complete ballet music from 1910. “It’s an enormous orchestra and the best version,” says Bancroft. 

This also marks a step in the recordings of Stravinsky’s ballets Petrushka, The Firebird and The Rite of Spring – Bancroft and the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra’s first recordings together. 

It is possible that Lili Boulanger heard at least one of these Stravinsky ballets, all of which premiered in her home city of Paris in the early twentieth century. First, we hear Lili Boulanger’s D’un matin de printemps – one of the last works this young genius composed before passing away much too young in 1918, at just 24 years old. Despite the circumstances, this is bright music with light and playful steps.  

Åland-born soprano Sofie Asplund is doubly present in Konserthuset this season: both in a lied concert and on this occasion, when she sings arias by Mozart. Asplund has garnered a great deal of acclaim in recent years and has been praised for several of her interpretations of roles on Sweden’s opera stages.